Staying safe on the road
Sixth year pupils attend Streets Ahead safety event
A heartbreaking plea to stay safe on the roads has been made to Edinburgh’s future motorists by a father who lost his five-year-old boy to a young driver.
Andrew Sneddon, whose son Ross died along with two other people in a horrific accident, was addressing sixth year pupils from schools across the capital at the finale of the Streets Ahead road safety event.
Speaking to the hushed hall at the city’s Corn Exchange, he described the day in 2004 when he heard a car screaming down the street outside his Glenrothes home.
The car, driven by a young driver three times over the drink-driving limit and high on drugs, mounted the pavement and hit his son, killing him instantly.
“Almost every bone in his body was broken, but that’s what happens when a five-year-old is hit by half a tonne of steel driven at 70 mph,” Andrew recalled.
“For the first time in my life, I felt helpless – I could not do anything to help my own son.
“I would gladly surrender ten years of my life to spend five minutes with him, but all we have left is 20 minutes of video footage to remember him by.
“Please stay safe on the roads, do not put another family through the hell we have been through.”
After the event, 17-year-old Rhea Macpherson of the Royal High School, who is currently learning to drive, said the talk would make her think twice when she is behind the wheel.
“It was a really emotional experience and made me think about the effect your driving could have on everyone else,” she said.
Gracemount High’s Callum Scott (17) said it was unbelievable that somebody’s thoughtless actions could cause such a tragedy.
“It will definitely make me a more careful driver,” he said.
The event was the first to be launched under the new Streets Ahead banner, which promotes the Council’s Road Safety Plan.
The plan – a collaboration between the Council, Lothian and Borders Police, Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service and NHS Lothian – aims to pool all road safety expertise to further reduce road casualties.
Ewan Kennedy, the Council’s policy and planning manager, said that the Road Safety Plan had identified the 16-25-year-old age group as being responsible for 23 per cent of road casualties.
“By working together under the banner of Streets Ahead we can share resources and achieve so much more than we could as individual agencies,” he said.
“This event is just the first of a range of road safety initiatives that will make Edinburgh’s streets safer for everyone.”
The Streets Ahead event was compered by Radio Forth’s Mark Martin, and attended by 2,500 pupils over five days.
The Baldy Bane Theatre company performed Friends Disunited, which vividly showed how a young person’s future can be shattered by careless driving.
There were also workshops from the police, fire service and Brain Injury Trust as well as a road safety bar and driving and seatbelt collision simulators.
Superintendent David Carradice from Lothian and Borders Police said: “A driving licence provides incredible freedom to a young driver, but it comes with great responsibility.
“All drivers must ensure that when they get behind the wheel, they drive in a manner which doesn’t put themselves or others in danger.
“Events like this are an excellent opportunity to engage with young drivers and educate them on the risks and, as has been proven, time and time again, education is one of the main keys to prevention,” he added.