This year during the Valentine’s celebrations the students’ union in GMIT, Castlebar will welcome Noel Gibbons, road safety officer for Mayo County Council, to distribute information on the latest campaign for responsible driving. The hard hitting campaign will warn students that more girls die as passengers than as drivers. “Take care when you’re out as a couple - don’t hurt the one you love,” is the message being delivered at the Castlebar campus.
The Castlebar campus not only has students from Co Mayo but from all corners of the country, travelling primarily by car to and from home. Road safety and awareness is something which affects all students from those travelling to college by car, bicycle. or on foot.
The students’ union has called the Mayo road safety statistics, whereby road fatalities in the county have remained the same over the past three years, unfortunate.
However union members have been encouraged by the fact that serious injuries sustained reduced significantly from 28 to 19 during the same period.
“For Valentine’s, the message is to inform those who we entrust with our lives while travelling not to risk our lives,” said Clare Lawlor, vice president and welfare officer of the union. “Slow down, take care, and be aware of others on the roads.”
Student union president Alan Judge added: “Our students have the ability to spread this simple message not only in Mayo but across the country to their own brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. Slow down, take care, and be aware of others on the road.”
For more details on the campaign call or pop into the students’ union, which is continuously looking for support for initiatives which keep students safe.
