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Friday 25 Jun 2004

LOCAL MP GOES BACK TO SCHOOL TO LEARN ABOUT RAIL SAFETY

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Vera Baird MP today (Friday 25 June) joined primary school pupils from Langbaurgh to learn about rail safety as part of the Langbaurgh Crucial Crew event which will be taking place at the Redcar and Cleveland College Connections Campus.  Network Rail and its industry partners British Transport Police are taking part in a two week event which will play host to some 1700 children.  The idea is to promote a series of safety messages in the home, on the street and on the railway through nine scenarios hosted by different organisations. The local MP said she was delighted to see pupils in her own back yard being given an opportunity to learn about rail safety and the potential hazards on and off the track. Vicki Smith, Network Rail’s External Liaison Officer, said: “Crucial crews provide the opportunity to deliver rail safety messages to a large number of children in one location.  We can discuss the dangers of trespass on the railway and acts of vandalism and their potentially fatal consequences using the model railway as a starting point for discussion.  With the school holidays fast approaching it is vital that we can deliver these messages so children can stay safe and enjoy the summer.” - more - Baird – 2 The Crucial Crew event in Redcar follows hot on the heels of a national initiative aimed at tackling crime on the railway.   Most offences across the country – which include throwing missiles at trains – are committed by boys aged between eight and 16; they cost the railways £260 million each  year and cause delays equivalent to 538 days. Sixty people died trespassing last year, excluding suicides, while six children were killed playing on or taking short cuts across tracks.  And there is a crime on the railways every 90 seconds in peak periods – between the hours of 4pm and 8pm. A moving film showing how friends of a 15-year old boy dealt with his death while playing on the railway has been released with the message “keep off the track and stay alive”. Tyler Deacon, a pupil at Soar Valley College, Leicester, died on the railway near his home last December.  With the help of his fellow pupils they made a film Tyler 4 Ever which is being distributed to every secondary school in Britain. In the film, Tyler’s classmates, as well as friends and relatives, explain how they coped with the tragedy in the hope that other youngsters will heed the warnings to stay away from the railway.