Road Safety offices from Local Authorities across the North West, Midlands and North East of the country have joined forces to launch the very first TikTok Mic Drop Road Safety competition.
Held in conjunction with iRadio, TikTok Mic Drop is putting the spotlight on all age groups and their capacity to deliver a positive message to their peers and the wider community to communicate the importance of safe road user behaviour, to ultimately save lives.
The competition invites participants to create their own song or rap focussing on sharing the road safely and to upload this onto TikTok tagging iRadio and mentioning their local authority.
Organisers noted that in 2020, a regrettable rise in the number of pedestrians killed on Irish roads occurred, up 19 per cent on 2019, as well as increases in the number of cyclist and motorcyclist fatalities, up 25 per cent and six per cent respectively. The campaign sets out to change this trend.
Entrants for the road safety competition are asked to focus on the message of sharing the road with other road users, be they cyclists, drivers, horse riders, motorcyclists or pedestrians.
This innovative challenge is being promoted by nine local authorities (Kildare, Monaghan, Laois, Longford, Donegal, Cavan, Sligo, Mayo, Leitrim and Westmeath ) in partnership with iRadio with a prize fund of €5,000. There are individual prizes of €,1000 for the four best entries and one spot prize of €1,000, which will be awarded to the best entry submitted by a school, sports team, club or community group. (Participants are asked to adhere to Covid19 guidelines when recording. ) While competing for the prize, video-makers will be able to highlight some of the most important road safety issues affecting their area in regards to respect and courtesy on the roads and pinpoint key ways that improvements can be made to benefit the local community.
Noel Gibbons, Road Safety Officer in the Communications Department of Mayo County Council said: "A road safety film made by a young person will resonate deeply with their peers and send a strong message.
"We believe that the TikTok Mic Drop video competition will attract participation from students in primary and secondary schools, colleges, universities and even the mature residents of our counties can come on board with the local authorities and iRadio in making road safety a culture. The videos submitted for the contest will play an important role in educating the masses and promoting road safety."
Entry to the competition is through TikTok, and the listener must share their creation on their own platform and tag/mention @Thisisiradio and use their county’s hashtag. TikTok Mic Drop starts on iRadio on March 8.
