No Name safety campaign launched

No Name safety campaign launched


Anton McNulty

OVER 140 students from the two secondary schools in Belmullet attended the first One 4 Life Road Safety Campaign on Friday afternoon last, with the campaign now set to be rolled out nationwide.
The road safety campaign was spearheaded by the Erris No Name Club with the assistance of Mayo County Council and involves the use of peer pressure to change young road users’ behaviour. Members of the Erris No Name Club pledged to take personal responsibility for road safety and to speak to those they consider to be driving in an unsafe manner.
At the official launch of the campaign, the Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council, Cllr Joe Mellett, sent the first text message containing the ‘one 4 life’ logo, after a minute’s silence was observed to remember the people who died in traffic accidents. The young people at the launch pledged to send the logo to every contact in their mobile as a reminder for drivers to drive responsibly
Edith Geraghty, Chairperson of the Erris No Name Club, explained that the campaign was designed by young people for young people and was a huge success. Beer goggles were handed out to the participants when they arrived and Ann Moran from Westport , whose daughter Regina died in a car accident a number of years ago, gave a talk on how Regina’s death affected her.
Members of the emergency services gave a talk and answered questions from the floor and Edith explained that what they heard really got through to the young people. As well as thanking the young people for their commitment, she also thanked the support shown by Padraig Brogan and Noel Gibbons of Mayo County Council.
“As the Chairperson, I am so proud of all the young people and the shear dedication they have shown to the campaign. It was their idea and that’s what makes it so different. It is important to note that until now all campaigns have been directed at young people, this is young people taking the responsibility on themselves. At the end, I knew the message had got through to them and that was the most important thing. It went off as we hoped and I can genuinely say it was a success,” she said.
The campaign launch was attended by the No Name Club CEO, Martin Ryan, who Edith said was extremely impressed by the idea. She said they had created the template for other clubs to follow and there were plans to roll it out to the 39 other No Name Clubs in the country.