Write a commentOur Lady’s Grammar School plays host to Autoline’s ‘Respect the Road’ Campaign
Students at Our Lady’s Grammar School, Newry have engaged in a powerful road safety initiative delivered by Autoline Insurance.
120 Year 14 students took part in the programme involving an interactive educational road safety workshop consisting of videos and harrowing first-hand accounts of real life incidents delivered by Tracey Doherty, a former PSNI Traffic Branch Officer of over 30 years’ experience.
The workshop was also attended by the Air Ambulance Northern Ireland, Autoline’s charity partner for 2018 which shares Autoline’s enthusiasm for raising road safety issues with young people.
Thanking Autoline for sponsoring the workshop, Teresa McAllister, Vice Principal at Our Lady’s Grammar School, said:
“The presentation has provided some serious reminders about our responsibilities as road users and about the potentially catastrophic consequences of inattention and, in particular, of speed and mobile phone use while driving. I hope that the students will remain mindful of what they have seen and heard during this very valuable presentation.”
As a result of Autoline Insurance Group’s commitment to road safety, over 25,000 new and soon-to-be drivers have benefited from the Respect the Road programme.
Suzanne Curtis of Autoline Insurance Group said “As a local insurance broker, we’re passionate about working with communities to make our roads safer and speaking with younger drivers to tackle issues relevant to them. In 2017, 63 people died on Northern Ireland’s roads. Almost 20% of those killed were aged between 16 and 24-years old and 13 of the total fatalities were in the Newry, Mourne and Down Council area.
“With our ‘Respect the Road’ campaign we aim to increase awareness amongst young drivers and decrease the number of major incidents and deaths on our roads. While there was a 25% decrease in deaths amongst 16-24-year-old road users in 2017 compared to the previous year, any death is one too many and we hope our work in this area can help reduce this statistic even further."
Students had the opportunity to learn more about Autoline's young driver insurance product ‘ChilliDrive’, a phone app based on telematics technology which can dramatically improve safety standards in young drivers by tracking and generating a score for each of their trips and outlining where improvements can be made to their driving habits.
Suzanne Curtis added “It is having a really positive impact on our current live users - on average over a six-month period the number of dangerous driving incidents recorded by the app fell by almost 20% as drivers improved their driving habits. There was also a reduction of over 50% in the average value of claims made by drivers aged 17-21.”
Colleen Milligan, the Air Ambulance Area Fundraising Manager for Down and Armagh, added “I thank Autoline Insurance Group for inviting me along to today’s very engaging presentation in Newry. Air Ambulance NI was called out over 200 times in its first six months of service and three-fifths of all callouts have been to road traffic collisions. The presentation from Tracey, although very tough to watch and listen to at times, is crucial to raising road safety issues with our young people and helping our roads become safer. I think it would benefit all road users to hear the presentation.”
For further information about how your school or organisation can participate in the ‘Respect The Road’ programme please contact Evanna Kieran at Autoline Insurance Group on 028 3025 9011.
