Road Safety Talk

Today was quite a memorable day of Ty. A man named Pat McNeely of the Road Safety Authority came in to talk to our class for the duration of the day. He started off the day with showing us videos and telling us a story about two young men, Paul and Dave, who had been involved in a car accident that changed their lives in a big way. They lost their best friend and Paul ended up in a wheelchair, paralysed from the hips down. This was a shocking story and it really showed how much people's lives can be changed by reckless driving.

Throughout the day, we watched numerous different videos and saw many graphic images of fatal car accidents and the affects they have on friends and families all over Ireland. We focused a lot on the traumatic car crash in Donegal which happened two years ago. Two cars were involved, one with a young man Declan driving with his Aunt and Uncle in the car, and another with a young man Paul driving with three teenage boys in the car, two of which were twin brothers. All were killed except Declan, who was talking in the video but it was evident the guilt he still felt as he felt that the crash was his fault. This was an upsetting video to watch as the families of the victims are traumatised by the accident and will never be the same again. All these videos that we saw and stories we were told were such an eye opener to how dangerous the road is these days, especially in light of the tragedy that happened yesterday when a sixteen year old girl was knocked down in Celbridge and later died in hospital. We should pray for her family and friends at this time and may she rest in peace.

For the second half of the day, Pat discussed driving theory tests and driving lessons with us. The subject of us learning to drive ourselves. We did a mock theory test, I did okay for my first try, despite having never attempted to drive a car before :L We were also taught what not to do at the scene of a crash such as don't move the victims incase of futher injury and things like that. All in all, this day was very informative an useful, although upsetting and graphic, we still learnt a lot and this information will stick with us for the rest of our lives.

Ciara Xxx