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Primary school children from more than 100 schools across London were thanked on Monday (7 July) for the hard work and dedication they have put in over the last year as Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSOs). Their efforts have helped to reduce the number of children killed or seriously injured on London's roads by 16 per cent since 2006. The JRSOs were treated to a day of fun and interactive activities at Transport for London's (TfL) Street Safe Live event at the Southbank Centre in Waterloo. The event included a performance of 'High Street Musical' with a road safety theme and an awards ceremony where some of the most exceptional junior officers won prizes for their own imaginative 'Street Safe' ideas in song, words and art. This is the third year that TfL has held the Street Safe Live day, and the response this year was overwhelming with almost 500 children there to celebrate the success of the scheme which involves schools 'recruiting' Year Five and Six pupils to take the lead in promoting road safety issues among their peers. Figures released by TfL last month show that the number of children killed or seriously injured in collisions on our roads is continuing to go down, and the success is in part thanks to innovative ways of giving young people the skills and confidence they need to negotiate London's busy roads. Younger children are also now being taught the basic road rules from nursery school age through TfL's Children's Traffic Club and A-Z Tales. The 'High Street Musical' theme of the day saw the children participating in cheer leading practice (with road safety messages), trying their luck with a football kicking machine to help them understand exactly how fast 30mph is and a distraction challenge with the message 'watch what you're doing while near the road'. The highlight of the day for many was the 'High Street Musical' stage performance, which featured a cameo by TfL's Managing Director of Surface Transport, David Brown, who also handed out the Street Safe Live awards to the deserving JRSOs. David Brown said, ''It is essential to educate youngsters about road safety and this event recognises the importance of rewarding the Junior Road Safety Officers for taking up such an important role in their schools. We've seen some great work come out of the kids this year, with performances of everything from rap songs to puppet shows, demonstrating just how many ways there are to get road safety messages across in a fun way. ‘'The JRSO scheme has played a vital role in reducing the number of road collisions involving children in London and all of the kids involved deserve our congratulations for the fantastic dedication they've shown to it.'' http://www.wired-gov.net |
