As part of the safety Week which will be running in Athlone Institute of Technology during next week, there will be particular emphasis on road safety next Wednesday January 28.
At 12pm on Wednesday there will be a road safety demonstration in the car park of the main campus at AIT, which will feature members of the emergency services carrying out their duties as if it were a real scenario. There will also be an emergency services workshop held after the demonstration, when students and staff will have the opportunity to talk with the Gardaí and the Ambulance Service and discuss ways in which they can improve their individual behaviour to make our roads safer.
Although there has been a reduction in the number of people killed on Irish roads in recent years, the numbers of people being either killed or seriously injured on our roads remains high.
According to Ciarán Fitzpatrick, vice president of AIT Students’ Union, the aim of the campaign is to promote safety in cars to young people and the community. “This is a results-orientated campaign, targeting the key audiences in a manner that produces an instant and strong response. We want to illustrate how an individual’s behaviour can have such a major impact on the overall safety of our roads; for example wearing a seat belt, or how even one drink can impair your driving,” says Mr Fitzpatrick.
“We want to raise awareness of the impact of a road collision on the people involved, their family, friends, and the community at large. We also wish to raise awareness of how a person’s behaviour plays a large part in road safety and to create awareness among the general public of the importance of road safety.”
The drive towards human safety is one of the major social movements of the new millennium. Road casualties occur on a daily basis in Ireland and these incidents lead to enormous emotional and economic consequences.
AIT Students’ Union feels that, as citizens and educators, it has a duty to emphasise this and to make people aware of the risks of dangerous driving.
The road safety exercise is one of a number of activities planned for AIT Safety Week ‘09, which also include information on personal, social, and fire safety.
