With the subject of track safety gaining newspaper inches in recent weeks, West Ham United Foundation are at the forefront of a pioneering scheme to provide track safety education to pupils in accident hotspots in Essex.
Combining the topic with the nation’s love of football, Tackling Track Safety aims to provide an understanding of the dangers of the railway to primary school pupils in Thurrock and Basildon.
Run in partnership with Network Rail and the Tackling Track Safety Project, the sessions delivered by the Foundation combine classroom activities with fun practical based sessions targeting four key areas: Electrification, Level Crossings, Crime on the Railway and Staying safe around the Railway.
The classroom activities bring to life key facts and figures that may make people stop and think, in a way that is relatable to key stage 2 pupils. For example, did you know an express passenger train travelling at full speed would take around 2000 metres – or 20 football pitches – to stop? Or that there have been 44 avoidable deaths at level crossings in the past five years?
Using sport to engage young people, the programme aims to show young students that messing around on the railway isn’t ‘cool’, with the intention of reducing crime and antisocial behaviour, preventing serious injury, or even death, as well as providing basic information such as how to cross a level crossing safely.
The scheme has, so far, been run in 12 classes across 6 schools (Eversley, St Teresa’s, Ryedene, South Benfleet, Little Thurrock and Belmont Castle Academy), with further schools in accident hot-spots due to benefit from the delivery in February and March next year.
The national Tackling Track Safety Project was launched by Paul Scholes on 19 November 2015, and the project is fast heading towards it’s 2016 goal of having educated 100,000 people on the dangers of the railway network.
For more information about the Tackling Track Safety scheme, please email [email protected]