Maritime museum in unique crash-test project 26.06.07

Hundreds of children and young teenagers across the North West are being taught the importance of wearing seatbelts through a unique crash-test simulation workshop in Inishowen. The car safety awareness project, running at the Inishowen Maritime Museum in Greencastle, allows schoolchildren to see first hand the effect of a crash, even at very low speeds, using a specially-adapted machine imported from Sweden. Inishowen Maritime Museum manager, Gemma Havlin said the project encourages a better understanding of the dangers of speed and carelessness.

“It’s a simple, but very important message as it saves lives. We have, to date, provided our safety workshops to over 200 primary school children in Inishowen and 200 secondary students from all over Donegal," said Gemma. "We hope all these students will wear their seat belts as a result of their participation and that their
‘pester-power’ will convince their parents to belt-up too." She explained the origins of the unique scheme. "This is a new pilot scheme formed as part of a trans-national project between Ireland and Sweden. The main ethos is car safety. Our partner organisations in Sweden have already built up a very impressive and successful curriculum, teaching children of all ages the importance of staying safe while being a passenger or driver of any vehicle." Everyone visiting Greencastle is invited to drop into the local museum to find out more about the programme. Meanwhile, the Donegal Road Safety Working Group launched their latest road safety awareness campaign yesterday to remind people that seat belts save lives, even on the shortest trips and at the lowest speeds. The aim of the 'Belt-Up' campaign is to tell drivers and passengers the importance of wearing a seat belt both in the front and back of a vehicle. This is based on the fact that the real crash often happens inside the car with the unrestrained person impacting with the windscreen, dashboard and with other passengers. The campaign is focusing on short trips at low speeds in urban areas and the new child restraint legislation. Under EU law, all children who are under 150 centimetres in height and weigh less than 36 kilograms – generally children up to 12 years - must be in an appropriate child car seat. Jenny McLoughlin of the Road Safety Authority said: “Every year too many children are killed or seriously injured on our roads, often because they are not properly restrained when travelling in a car. "We welcome this initiative by the Donegal Road Safety Working Group and would also encourage people to visit the Road Safety Authority’s website  www.rsa.ie  where you can order a free DVD or booklet on child safety in cars.”
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