Building on the success of events held during the last three national Road Safety Weeks, Derbyshire, England-based company Longcliffe Quarries (Longcliffe) has delivered two hard-hitting, interactive activities for primary and secondary school pupils.
The first event was held – for the first time – on site at Longcliffe’s Curzon Lodge Transport Depot, where its fleet of over 40 HGVs is based, ready for deliveries of the company’s wide range of essential calcium carbonates products around the country.
In another first for Longcliffe, this time, an event was held for primary school pupils. Over 45 Year 3 to Year 6 pupils (aged seven to 11) from Cromford Primary School came to the site for a morning of practical exercises to help them learn the importance of safety around large road vehicles.
Having experienced two road safety incidents involving pupils earlier this year, Road Safety Week was an important opportunity for the school to reinforce valuable road safety messages. Pupils were taken through an exercise to demonstrate blind spots around lorries and to educate them on safe road crossing. They also took part in a quiz to check that the safety messages had sunk in, and then the winners were given Longcliffe ‘goodie’ bags.
“We are very grateful to Longcliffe for running this practical and impactful event,” said Headteacher Ian Wilson. “As a school, we are trying to increase road safety around the school, as two of our elder students were hit by a car earlier in the year. We are doing traffic work in school and also encouraging students to use scooters and bikes to travel to school to reduce the amount of car traffic. The Longcliffe event complements and reinforces the messages we are trying to embed with the students.”
For the second event, the Longcliffe team took a 44-tonne articulated tanker lorry and a 32-tonne rigid tipper truck to Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School (QEGS) in Ashbourne to deliver road safety messages to 240 Year 7 pupils. Longcliffe was invited back to this school, having hosted a very successful session there in 2023.
QEGS teacher Kate Morgan said: “We have a lot of large vehicles on the roads around Ashbourne. This demonstration of blind spots and stopping distances helps students understand the importance of respecting the roads and keeping themselves safe. It was so much more impactful than anything we could do in class. Thank you, Longcliffe.”
The event focused on safety for vulnerable road users, including pedestrians and cyclists, who account for nearly half of fatalities on the UK’s roads.
Longcliffe’s educational session at QEGS included the opportunity to sit in the lorry driver’s cab, providing young students with an impactful, first-hand view of visibility limitations and blind spots. The event also saw the whole of Year 7 working through an exercise around the ‘tipper’ lorry to understand how to stay as safe as possible as pedestrians.
Event organiser and Longcliffe’s Head of Health and Safety, Tony Woodroffe, added: “Safety is Longcliffe’s priority, whether that’s on our sites or out on the road with our fleet. Giving these students an insight into the lorry driver’s perspective is a powerful way of conveying safety messages for them when they are walking or cycling.”
Reacting to the Longcliffe events, student comments included:
· “The staff were fantastic. They showed us everything we needed to know about road safety,” – Olivia
· “One of the lorries was 44 tonnes!” – Alfie
· “It was a really safe environment. The workers were really nice,” – Charlie
All students were presented with a ‘Be Safe, Be Seen’ high-visibility waistcoat to take home.
Every year, more than 1700 people die on UK roads. Another 30,000 receive serious, life-changing injuries. For more information about Road Safety Week, click here: https://www.brake.org.uk/road-safety-week
