Continental highlights issue of road safety around schools

Before the Easter Holidays, Continental Tyres Ireland joined forces with transition year students from Drimnagh Castle Secondary School in Dublin to highlight the issue of road safety around schools.

A group of 17 students under the guidance of Transition Year coordinator Fergal Kelleher carried out a traffic survey on the Long Mile Road in front of their school on a typical school day.  The students were assisted by Laser Technology Inc. - the leading supplier of laser speedgun technology - who provided speedguns to gauge the speed of passing traffic.
 
According to Fergal Kelleher: "We are thankful to Continental Tyres in helping to raise the issue of road safety around schools.  For ourselves, located as we are on a straight, wide main road, there have been some issues in the past with road safety.  The speed test really showed us the extent of speeding on the Long Mile Road and in the interests of our students' safety, we would strongly urge drivers to slow down and exercise extra caution when driving near our school and indeed, any school."
 
With the help of Laser Technology Inc., the transition year students carried out a speedgun test on a typical busy afternoon near to the gates of the school on the Long Mile Road.  The speed limit on the stretch of the road outside the school is set at 30kmh at the times when students are going to school in the morning and leaving in the afternoon.  At the designated times, there are flashing speed limit signs highlighting the 30kmh limit near the school. 
 
Using a number of speed guns, the students monitored the speed of some 200 vehicles passing their school gates.  In addition to taking a speed reading, the students took note of the gender of the driver, a rough idea of age group and the type of vehicle.
 
Surprisingly, 58 percent of the 200 drivers monitored were driving in excess of the 30kmh speed limit.  The highest speed registered was 62kmh driven by a man estimated to be in the 50-60 age range driving a BMW 5 Series - that is more than twice the speed limit.
 
The students were also surprised to find that women drivers were even more guilty than male drivers when it came to breaking the 30kmh speed limit (55 percent of the "speeders" were women drivers). 
 
Tom Dennigan, of Continental Tyres Ireland said: "As a tyre manufacturer, road safety is of huge concern to us. This was our main motivation in carrying out this exercise and we can clearly see from the results that far too many drivers are driving dangerously in proximity to this school.  The environs of a school present a host of extra risks for drivers with students milling about - on foot and on bicycles - and perhaps some parents parking irresponsibly.  When you add speeding to this situation, it is a lethal cocktail.  To avoid a student being seriously injured or worse, we would plead with drivers to slow down when driving near any school"
 
"Drivers need to realise that stopping distances are a whole lot longer than they might expect.  For example at 50kmh, an average car on good tyres in good weather conditions will take almost 24 metres (6 car lengths) to stop.  And if the road is wet, or perhaps if tyres are worn or damaged, the stopping distance could be double that - and that could be the difference between stopping safely or knocking down a student", concluded Dennigan.
 
Transition Year student Aaron Crowe said: "As part of our road safety module in Transition Year, this was a very valuable exercise for us.  I know that students as pedestrians and / or cyclists are perhaps not the best behaved road users... At times, we do tend to dash across the road.  In light of this, we feel that drivers really need to slow down when they are driving near a school."