Children teach parents about car safety
Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, in partnership with Thames Valley police, Prodrive Ltd and Halfords, launched their child seatbelt safety campaign at Queensway Primary School, Banbury, which gives parents a chance to find out what kind of car seat safety is required for their children.
Educating parents
Year four pupils from Queensway Primary School helped decorate a model Aston Martin Racing GTE created by Prodrive’s Les Irwin, who was responsible for building Harry Potter’s bedroom in the film series, that would help indicate whether they required a booster seat. The model car has an aperture of 1.50cm and if the child can pass through without ducking they would need a booster seat.
The aim of the campaign is to educate parents, through their children, of the dangers of not securing their child safely in a car, and the legal implications.
The campaign focuses on year four children because this is the age group (8-9 year-olds) when parents tend to stop using booster seats and seat belts correctly.
Pupils design safety leaflet
Firefighter Darran Gough, from Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, developed the idea after taking his nine-year-old daughter to the local fun fair and discovering that she was unable to go on some of the rides due to height restrictions.
As part of this project the children were shown a seat belt demonstrator that dramatically illustrates the dangers of not wearing the correct seatbelt.
The children also designed an information leaflet, which included money off vouchers from Halfords for a booster/safety seat to get the message across.
Cllr Judith Heathcoat, Cabinet Member for Safer and Stronger Communities, said: “This is the perfect opportunity to educate parents, through their children, about the importance of using booster seats and seat belts correctly. The fact that the children are leading this campaign is the right concept as I’m sure that the message to parents coming from their own children will have a more lasting effect.”