Youngster has designs on road safety campaign

A COUPLE of Birmingham school pupils have done their bit to increase road safety awareness by a competition to design a poster highlighting the importance of taking care when crossing roads. Organised by Heartlands Ford, the competition asked schoolchildren to design a poster that will raise the importance of road safety amongst every generation but particularly children and young people.

And seven-year-old Salim Ahmed (pictured), a pupil at Oldknow Junior School, was chosen as the winner of the school years 1, 2 and 3 category with his informative design, which taught children how to cross roads safely and look out for oncoming traffic. Fellow pupil Shahed Miah, meanwhile, won the year’s 4-6 category as both budding designers picked up £25 gift vouchers for themselves as well as a new digital camera for their school as prizes.

The children were presented with their rewards at the Heartlands Ford showroom last week at an event attended by winners, runners-up, teachers and parents. Martyn Cooke, regional new car sales manager at Heartlands Ford, explained: “We wanted to support Brake Road Safety Week and this competition has been a good way of educating children about crossing roads and the dangers of traffic, especially with the winter months drawing in.

“The standard of entries was very high and we hope that every child who did a design will remember the road safety message which is so important.” The four runners up were Jae Stacey and Caitlin Mason (from Stoneydelph Primary) in the infants category and Frazer Beglin and Courtni Baker (both Ankermoor Primary) in the juniors category.

The judging panel also highlighted entries from Ewan Williams, Sophie Udale and Saoirse Hughes (all Stoneydelph pupils) and Archie Chesters (Ankermoor Primary) who all received “commended” awards.
The competition ran in conjunction with national road safety week which took place last week.