The Health and Safety Team at Carntyne recently held road safety presentations at Balornock Primary School as part of Road Safety Week. The main objective of the day was to raise awareness among the children about the potential dangers posed by HGVs on the roads and emphasise the importance of road safety.

Speaking with 107 pupils, Group Head of Health and Safety, Craig Welsh, covered health and safety basics including the differences between health and safety and what constitutes a hazard before discussing road safety, specifically the dangers of HGVs.

Reflecting on the day, he said:

“We set out to add a practical element to the road safety campaign the school were running for Road Safety Week. Each classroom session was focused on the potential hazards that the children could face when crossing roads as pedestrians. HGV Driver blind spots were also an important element of the sessions with teachers and pupils given the opportunity to get inside an HGV and witness blind spots first-hand. Our driver trainers brought two units to the school which were parked up in the playground. The pupils were positioned within the blind spots of the HGVs while their teachers sat in the driver’s seat and used the mirrors and windows of the vehicle to see how many pupils they could spot from the driver’s seat. We managed to position the whole class around the vehicle with the teacher not being able to spot a single child. The pupils were also given the opportunity to get into the driver’s seat and honk the horn like they were proper truckers.”

Carntyne administrator and mum to P7 pupil Kyle, also joined the team for the day, saying “the kids found the presentation a fun learning experience and were so interested - asking and answering lots of questions. They were really excited for their teachers to get into the lorry and them also to toot the horn!”

Kyle said, “Carntyne coming into my school was good as we got to learn more about health and safety and the risk of truck driver’s blind spots. My best part of the day was when we got into the truck and press the horn and my mum for coming to school for the day.”

Pupils at the school were given a high-vis vest to keep them safe on their walks to school, along with a Carntyne branded water bottle and ruler. We hope to continue this road safety event at the school in the years to come.