Nine-year-old Summer Scopes from Stanford-le-Hope in Essex has won a nationwide competition to design a poster to raise awareness of railway safety - a project that the West Ham United Foundation have played a key role in delivering.
Summer’s winning poster design will appear at Network Rail stations across Britain from today (Wednesday 16 August), helping to reach millions of young people with messages about railway safety.
Summer was awarded her prize at London Liverpool Street station by Eliane Algaard from Network Rail, and Ross Williams and Bryan Glover from the West Ham United Foundation, who have helped to deliver the Tackling Track Safety Project.
With the subject of track safety a vital one for youngsters, the Foundation have been at the forefront of a pioneering scheme to provide track safety education to pupils in accident hotspots in Essex.
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?