Teddy tumbles to save children’s lives

A colourful storybook devised by students at a north west college so impressed road safety officers in the region that they used it to launch a conference on in-car safety.

The storybook, ‘Teddy Takes a Tumble’, outlines the danger of young children not wearing car seat belts and has been written by students taking a Diploma in Child Care and Education at Skelmersdale and Ormskirk College.

The conference, held at Chorley Hospital on Wednesday 10 April, was organised by LARSOA’s north west group. Guest speakers included hospital facial consultants Chris Brooks and John Cornah, who talked about the horrific injuries caused by passengers not wearing seat belts.
The booklet tells the story of Billy, who didn’t strap his teddy bear in the car. This resulted in the cuddly bear flying through the air and smashing into the windscreen when his mother was forced to brake sharply. When the car stops Billy picks up teddy, hugs him closely and says, ‘I’ll always put your seat belt on from now on’.

The booklet has the backing of Lancashire Police who have made a video based on the story. The video features six year old Reece Dugdale who launched the booklet along with the student authors.

"One child in every 10 under the age of 13 riding in a rear seat is still unrestrained," says road safety officer Julie Windeler, who organised the conference. "The students at Skelmersdale College were horrified when they discovered these statistics and set about looking at ways they could help young children avoid the dangers of not being properly restrained.

"When LARSOA saw the booklet they thought it was an ideal way to get the message across to young children, and have produced it to distribute to schools and nurseries and as a centrepiece for our conference."

The aim of the conference was to raise awareness of the dangers of children not being properly restrained and to help reduce the number of accidents every year.
For further information about this story please contact:

Julie Windeler
tel: 0151 471 7365
email: Julie.Windeler@halton-borough.gov.uk

Footnote:
This campaign is now available for other authorities to purchase. To do so please contact Julie Windeler, contact details above.