‘Bees’ help motorists and children in Lancashire

With the autumn term now well underway and the nights drawing in, the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety has recently launched its new Bee Safe campaign.

The Partnership is issuing Bee Safe superhero dangle tags to seven and eight year olds across the County. The dangle tags can be attached to clothing, bags or pack lunch boxes and make children more visible during the darker months as they travel to and from school. Schools have also been supplied with fact sheets on speed, along with activity sheets for teachers to use in the classroom.

To encourage children to wear their Superhero Bee tags a local community beat manager is visiting primary schools and rewarding children seen wearing their tag with a sticker. If a child receives two stickers he or she can enter a prize draw.

During the trip to school traffic is at its busiest and consequently poses the most risk to children. With around 65 per cent of collisions taking place on familiar roads close to home, parents need to remind their children to think about their visibility on the roads.

Children are not only smaller and harder to see, but also have less speed, time and spatial awareness than adults. According to the Lancashire Partnership, the Bee reflectors enable motorists to see children around eight times further away than would otherwise be the case.