Omagh teens shown award-winning Roadsafe Roadshow

NEARLY 800 sixth-form students from across Omagh assembled in the leisure centre on Thursday to watch the police’s ‘award-winning’ Roadsafe Roadshow.

The police, supported by AXA insurance, provided the road safety video to the schoolchildren as they recognise that ‘young people aged 25 and under are one of the age groups most at risk of being killed or seriously injured on our roads each year’

The video, which has already seen seen by thousands of students, shows how a typical night out can end in disaster.

It is narrated from the perspectives of the emergency services, an accident consultant, a man jailed for a road traffic collision and a paralysed victim of a crash.

Sergeant Verner of the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s Road Policing Education team said he makes ‘no apologies’ for the graphic nature of the video.

“The Roadsafe Roadshow has been a major success and it enables us to bring a road safety message to thousands of young people in the highest risk group.

“We have no doubt that the road show shocks, perhaps even horrifies, our young audiences – we make no apology for that.

“We believe that showing realistically just what happens on our roads has an impact on the students who attend. Our hope is that after seeing the roadshow they realise that they are not indestructible; that they are as vulnerable on the roads as the next person and that they must respect the roads and other users.

“One of the hardest parts of any police officer’s job is breaking the news of the death or injury of a loved one to relatives and it is especially heart-breaking when that news is of a young person whose whole life lay ahead.

“Most traffic collisions could have been avoided and we hope that the road show will help young people realise the consequences of their actions,” Said Sargent Verner.