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THINK! team up with Leeds United FC to keep children safe on the roads

Government Communications (NDS)

19 January 2011

The Leeds United Foundation will use its after-school clubs and activities in schools and on match days to help youngsters learn about road safety with THINK!'s Tales of the Road materials.The new initiative will focus on helping six to 11-year-olds learn how to find safe places to cross the road after evidence showed that this is a key factor in helping children stay safe on the roads.Road Safety Minister Mike Penning said:"Britain’s roads are among the safest in the world but last year more than 1,600 children were killed or seriously injured - that's 31 children every week."We need to think of new ways to reach children and make sure that they are given the skills they need to keep themselves safe on the roads as they grow up and gain independence."That is why I am delighted to announce that THINK! is teaming up with The Leeds United Foundation to help get the message across through community work, after-school clubs, match day activities, competitions and other work. I hope that this scheme will see more children gain in knowledge and confidence so that we will see fewer tragedies on the roads."Alan Scorfield, education project manager at The Leeds United Foundation, said:“As part of our involvement in the THINK! ‘Tales of the Road’ campaign, we will be visiting around 50 primary schools across Leeds to deliver classroom activities and raise awareness of road safety. We will also be running activities on match days, supported by members of the teams and our mascot, Lucas the Kop Cat.“There are lots of young football fans in Leeds and we hope that by combining the road safety message with football, it will be a particularly effective way of educating children and reducing the number of casualties on our roads.”Becky Prosser, road safety manager for Leeds City Council, said:“Leeds – and Yorkshire as a whole – has one of the highest accident rates for child pedestrians, so I really welcome this campaign. We will be supporting Leeds United in visiting schools and getting the message across to as many children as possible.“We’d also encourage parents and other community groups to get involved by talking to children about road safety – there is lots of useful information on the Tales of the Road website that they can download and share with children.”The four clubs taking part in the new pilot project - Leeds United, Blackburn Rovers, Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion - are all based in regions where there are higher than average casualty numbers for children aged six to 11. This work will be supported by local road safety officers and council road safety programmes.In addition, THINK! is distributing exercise books with road safety activities to primary schools across the country during January.