News

Following on from Poole's demonstration of car and seat belt safety at Haymoor Middle School, a dramatic improvement has been shown in safety when leaving the school premises.

As part of National Road Safety week in October the Borough of Poole and Haymoor Middle School joined forces to help raise awareness of road safety with the school. Poole's Road Safety Officer ran a child seatbelt check of cars arriving and leaving the school and then followed it up with a working demonstration model, showing children exactly what happens when they do and don't wear their seatbelts in the car.

Another seatbelt check was undertaken at the school to assess the impact the model had on the children. The results of the count showed a 9% improvement of children wearing seatbelts since the original survey and a more positive understanding of car safety among the children.

Lesley Hart, Road Safety Officer, Borough of Poole, said: "This result is a real boost and indicates that by using a visual stimulus the children absorb the information more effectively. The demonstrator model will now be available for all schools in Poole to use to show their children the effects of poor car safety. We hope that this will have a positive influence on general car safety."

Councillor Ron Parker, Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Local Economy, said: "Car safety is an ongoing concern and these results are a real boost. The model is an extremely effective way of demonstrating to children and adults the real dangers of not being aware of basic safety measures in vehicles. This is a great beginning that must be built on and consistently enhanced further within all Poole schools."

The new high tech demonstrator model shows a car going down a ramp and braking at speed. The model figures can be seat belted in or not and the effects of both, upon impact, can visibly be seen.