Roadsafe Roadshow delivers hard-hitting safety message
By William O'Connor
THE Roadsafe Roadshow, in partnership with South Dublin County Council and local Emergency Services, delivered a hard-hitting road safety message to 700 Transition Year students in the Red Cow Moran Hotel last week.
This is the sixth AXA Roadsafe Roadshow and is aimed primarily at Transition Year students in Secondary Schools with students attending from Tallaght, Clondalkin and Lucan..
At the Roadsafe Roadshow
It is based on an award-winning format and depicts graphically how a night out, can end in tragedy.
The show depicts what happens with driver inexperience and overconfidence, with the aim to educate and highlight the various safety skills these young students need before they get behind the wheel of a car.
Using a backdrop of contemporary music, video clips and television advertisements; the story is told by Garda David Barron, Paramedic Tony Kelly, Fire Officer Darren O’Connor and A&E Consultant, Dr Philip D’Arcy.
The show culminates in a presentation by Leo Lieghio who tragically lost his daughter Marsia, thirteen years ago in a hit-and-run in Clondalkin.
Marsia was just 16 years old at the time and was knocked down at a set of pedestrian lights. Leo tells the students about the raw grief he and his family have had to suffer since that terrible day.
“The event tells the real-life stories of people who deal with the needless carnage caused by speed, drink and drugs on Irish roads and the show brings home the pain caused by unnecessary road crashes and the impact on people and how it has changed their lives forever,” said Antoinette McDonald, Direct, Partner and Customer Experience Directorat, AXA Insurance.
She added: “The aim of the event is to educate novices and young drivers to think twice about the seriousness of safety when learning to drive.
We know that when these students start driving it will give them a new sense of freedom and we want to make sure they enjoy this new freedom but at the same time educate them on the responsibilities that go with it.”
