Pictured from left, Lindsay Murphy, Rebecca Ivory, and Shane Murphy, 5th year students from Scoil Neasain, Baldoyle at the AXA Roadsafe Roadshow at the Helix on Tuesday
The AXA Roadsafe roadshow took place in front of an audience of over a thousand teenagers in the Helix at Dublin City University on Tuesday 16th November. Run in conjunction with Fingal County Council, the event is organised with the involvement of local emergency services. It delivered a hard-hitting road safety message to all who attended.
Before the roadshow began a boisterous crowd of transition and senior year students hustled their way to their seats in the Helix. But it wasn’t too long before a silence fell on the room as the event graphically depicted how an ordinary night out can end in tragedy.
The story is told as a graphic sequence of events unfolds – by a Garda, ambulance personnel, fire officer, an Accident and Emergency consultant and a representative from a victim support group.
The show culminates in a presentation by a local man Aidan Scully, a road accident survivor. Aidan Scully spoke to the teenagers to hammer home the importance of safe driving on the roads.
Aidan was knocked down by a motorist when he was cycling home from school, aged fourteen. He sustained a head injury and lost the use of his arm. Aidan has been on a long journey of rehabilitation following his injury. His message was clear: “Take care on the roads and look after yourselves and those around you”. For more on the tragic story of Aidan Scully click here.
Last month 35 people lost their lives on our roads – two thirds of these victims were aged between 16 and 30. To date 12 lives have been lost in the Fingal area in 2010. We are hopeful that the AXA Roadsafe Roadshow will help to deter young people from falling into this category going forward by showing them the realistic impacts of driving with speed and the damage it can cause.
As the largest car insurance company in Ireland AXA is strongly committed to increasing the awareness of road safety and educating motorists on the dangers of irresponsible driving. We hope that young people will learn from this event, think twice about the seriousness of safety when driving and realise the consequences of taking risks on the road.
For more on road safety, follow us on Facebook at AXA Road Safety
Related AXA Blogs: AXA sponsors “Impact”, a new Road Safety Awareness documentary series on TV3. / Hard hitting Road Safety Message for Mayo teenagers / ‘ Next time, it could be you!’ – Safe driving message from AXA
Irish Examiner article: Teens get insight to horror crashes
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