Thirty students appointed Junior Road Safety officers
By Mark Mangan
ALMOST thirty primary school students were appointed as Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSO) by South Dublin County Council as part of a new road safety programme for primary schools in South Dublin, reports Mark Mangan.
The event was launched by Mayor Paul Gogarty and the council’s Road Safety Officer Declan Keogh, in partnership with the Road Safety Authority and the Primary Schools network which provides the Junior Road Safety Officers with three months of assignments and tasks to do before they finish for their school holidays in June.
St Mary's Boys National School with Mayor Paul Gogarty
The first assignment which the JRSO’s have to do is promote the ‘Be Safe Be Seen’ campaign where people must be responsible and visible while using the road .
Speaking at the launch Mayor Paul Gogarty said: “As we know, road safety is a very important topic and it involves each and every one of us as citizens and as a road user.
“The job of the Junior Road Safety Officers is to help promote road safety within their school, and among classmates, friends and family and any activity that can help these measures is welcomed.”
South Dublin’s Road Safety Officer Declan Keogh said the newly appointed officers will provide great assistance in terms of helping to promote road safety.
He added, “We’re always looking at new ways to promote road safety and this new initiative, the Junior Road Safety Officers is not only a great thing for the JRSO’s themselves, but to the entire school, their local communities and other road users too because the work that they will do within their class and school will also be brought outside and into the public, so they too are helping to raise the profile of road safety and hopefully, helping to reduce the number of road related incidents.”
The students received their Junior Road Safety Officer packs which included a JRSO book with monthly plans, ideas and actions to promote road safety. There are also competitions and games within the book such as road safety crosswords, puzzles and learning the Safe Cross Code .
Their final task is to nominate and appoint two new Junior Road Safety Officers for the next full school term in September.
Any primary schools wishing to be added to the JRSO programme can contact South Dublin County Council’s Road Safety Unit on 01-4149207 or email roadsafe [at] sdublincoco [dot] ie and type JRSO in the subject bar .
