A Gendarme shows schoolchildren a bicycle helmet during a road safety awareness session in Omer Arrondell School in French Quarter on Monday. (Robert Luckock photo)
Partners in CSI’s road safety awareness initiative pose for a group photo in Omer Arrondell School on Monday. (Robert Luckock photo)
MARIGOT–Gendarmes have once again shared their knowledge and experience with the community, this time in another prevention and road safety awareness session with schoolchildren in French Quarter.
Previous awareness sessions, particularly on the wearing of crash helmets, have focused on adolescents and young adults.
The prevention initiative, started three years ago, is an on-going collaboration between the Gendarmerie and insertion association Centre Symphorien d’Insertion (CSI) of French Quarter.
Monday’s afternoon session took place in Omer Arrondell School with CM1 and CM2 classes, children who are eight to 10 years of age, with the cooperation of Principal Didier Lauglaney.
“At this age they are riding bicycles, so they are very vulnerable on the public road,” said CSI President Marie-Paule Rousseau-Cornette. “They must wear bicycle helmets for protection. And when they are in the car with their parents they must wear their seat belt. That also applies in the bus. We also teach them how to cross a road safely: look left, look right, look left again.
“The objective is to try to prevent them copying the ways of older teenagers. We hope by keeping up and repeating this safety advice at a very young age it will stick in their minds. When they get older they will have to take lessons to pass a driving test.
“We hope after these sessions they talk with their parents and brothers and sisters about what they have learnt. It was important also for us to do this before the vacations start in June. CSI’s main objective this year is security.”
The children were kept engaged with questions on safety which they answered enthusiastically.
“This is the first time we are doing this with the Gendarmerie in a school environment,” she added.
Partners in the initiative include Auto Ecole Hope Estate, CSI, the Gendarmerie and SXM Sport Evasion whose President is Jean-Paul Rousseau. He took the opportunity to show the children a standard bicycle helmet, emphasising the importance of always wearing it when they go out riding.
Future sessions will have a short course organised by Auto Ecole Hope Estate around which children can ride to learn the right riding technique to be safe and to learn the various road signs.
The participating Gendarmes were Gérard Dumont (communications), Cedric Millot and Luc Daras of the Motorised Brigade (BMO), and Prescillia Gazon, the Gendarmerie’s Intervenante Sociale en Gendarmerie (ISG).
The CSI team included Janice Chittick, Troy Mills and Sylvanie Benjamin.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/76397-gendarmes-give-schoolchildren-road-safety-awareness-advice
View comments
Hide comments