New reflective blazers for pupils at three Fermanagh schools

The Public Health Agency (PHA) has renewed its commitment to improve road safety and high visibility in the Fermanagh area for students, with the introduction of reflective blazers in Lisnaskea High School, St Comhghall’s College and Devenish College, County Fermanagh.

This was a pilot initiative undertaken by the Western Education and Library Board (WELB) and the PHA has provided vouchers for a number of students to help with the costs of purchasing new school blazers this year.

Welcoming the initiative, Brendan Bonner, Head of Health and Social Wellbeing (West) at the PHA commented: “Fermanagh has some of the worst levels of road traffic collisions. The programme not only aims for better visibility for students on the road but also aims to improve their attitudes about hazard perception and encourages them to consider their responsibility for other road users. This initiative is one of a number of programmes we are involved with in the west to improve road safety for everyone.”

Rosemary Watterson, WELB Chief Administrative Officer and Chair of the Pupil Road Safety Focus Group, said: “One of the objectives of the Group was to improve pupils’ road safety, when traveling to and from schools, by increasing their visibility through wearing reflective uniforms especially in dark winter mornings and evenings. We are delighted that three schools in Fermanagh have introduced reflective blazers this academic year and would encourage all post primary schools, in particular, to give serious consideration to their introduction.”

Thanking the PHA for their support, the three school Principals Mr. Rees of Lisnaskea High School, Mr Kelly of St Comhghall’s School and Mr Walker of Devenish College said:

“This initiative is vital to the wellbeing of pupils to and from school as well as highlighting good road safety practices by pupils and car owners. We’d also like to thank the Western Education and Library Board (WELB) and PSNI for the ongoing hard work in developing road safety awareness. Dark uniforms, rural roads and dark evenings are challenges to the safety of pupils. We hope that these reflective blazers go a long way to helping pupils be safe and visible on our roads.”

The students had a significant input into the design of the blazer and they have proven to be very popular. The reflective strip will go a long way to helping ensure that young people in Lisnaskea are more visible on the roads.