Hertfordshire County Council has worked with the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) to develop and extend road safety education in schools within the county. The aim of the project was to raise awareness of both the importance and the breadth of road safety and road safety education within schools and the local education authority, and so establish road safety education within the curriculum. The project has included inter-agency work with the police, health authority and engineers and also links to national bodies. It has led to the development of the Hertfordshire guidelines for teachers and has greatly extended the scope of the Road Safety Unit's work with schools. The project has shown that road safety education can provide a real and very relevant context for the delivery of the National Curriculum. To be effective pupils should receive small, but frequent, regular and purposeful inputs. To achieve this, an imaginative lead is required, but one which also reflects an air of realism, sensitivity and awareness to current pressures within the primary and secondary schools. The success of the project in Hertfordshire depended on the commitment and cooperation of all the people involved: similar results can only be obtained elsewhere if this cooperation is valued and pursued. (A)
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