Ireland | Local/public authority

Drogheda is one of Ireland's oldest and most historical towns situated 28 miles (45 km) from Dublin. Drogheda Borough Council represents 30,000 citizens and provides services to meet local needs. There is an average of 210 employees.

We intend to introduce children to road safety from a very young age, as we consider it to be very important to make them good drivers in the future. We will do that through the following actions:

1. We will conduct a road safety audit including 19 primary and secondary schools in our functional area (over 7,500 students). Through this audit, we plan to contribute to reducing the risks of an accident during the students’ journey as well as highlighting issues of road user behaviour. The road safety audit will incorporate the views of engineers, students and their families, school authorities and other road users. We foresee a participation of about 13,000 people. The audit will take place in Drogheda.
   
   
2. We will set up a Road Safety Committee in each of the aforementioned 19 schools. The Road Safety Committee will be made up of representatives of students, school authorities, parents, public bus companies, the Irish Police Force and the local authority (15 people). This committee will assess the Road Safety Audits, suggest actions, and plan road safety programmes for teachers and children. The process of setting up the committee will begin with a pilot programme, starting in September 2006 and involving three schools, and will gradually be rolled out over the next 18 months to all 19 schools.
   
   The actions identified by the committee will be prioritised, costed and implemented over the three-year period. The committee formed will meet once a term during at least the following three years.
   
   
3. In collaboration with the Irish Police Force and school authorities, we will conduct an Educational Programme with primary school students (4-12 years old) highlighting the importance of road safety. It will initially involve an Art Competition, whereby 1,000 primary school students will be given an overview of road safety issues and encouraged to discuss these issues in a classroom setting.
   
   This action will be evaluated and extended to the other students (of the 19 schools) over the following 18 months using similar and also separate methods, such as a writing competition.
   
   The aim of these competitions is to raise awareness of school children, their parents and teachers/school staff about the importance of road safety and to educate and change road user behaviour.