Carnmoney pupils highlight safety concerns

A group of local students and their teachers took part in a safety initiative last week to highlight the dangers faced by young pedestrians.

The pupils and staff from Carnmoney Primary School supported Brake’s Giant Walk event on Wednesday, June 15.

The campaign saw the group from the Carnmoney Road school join thousands of others across the United Kingdom to walk the streets for road safety. The road safety charity’s initiative, sponsored by Ageas, got children walking, while highlighting the importance of road safety and leading active, healthy lives. More than 50,000 children took part in this year’s event to learn about road safety and to call on drivers to ‘GO 20’ in communities to make streets safer for children and young people to walk and cycle.

Lynn Bannon, school council coordinator said: “We’re delighted to be taking part in Brake’s Giant Walk. It’s a fantastic opportunity for kids to make their voices heard and promote road safety to children, parents and local drivers. Our pupils will be walking and shouting out loud about the importance of drivers slowing down in our community, so families can enjoy a healthy, fun, active lifestyle without being endangered.”

Katie Shephard, development director at Brake added: “As is clear from the thousands taking part in Brake’s Giant Walk today, including pupils from Carnmoney Primary School, kids love to get out and about on foot and bike, and parents want to be able to let them. It is a national scandal that danger from fast traffic often prevents children from having the fun, active, healthy childhoods they deserve. We need drivers to stick to 20mph or less in communities to protect kids. Brake will continue to campaign for government to make 20mph the national urban default and provided sustained funding for safe walking and cycling infrastructure. Safe active travel should be the norm for all our kids, not a luxury.”

Results from a survey conducted by Brake showed that many people feel frightened when they make journeys on foot or by bike.

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