Isle of Wight schoolchildren support emergency services with this year’s drink-driving campaign

Across the Isle of Wight, schoolchildren have been designing posters to support this year’s winter drink-drive campaign.

The posters will be displayed at various locations including pubs, restaurants, shops, libraries, and GP surgery notice boards.

A panel of judges had the difficult job of whittling the entries down from 200 to four and then picking an overall winner.

On Friday, a ceremony was held at Ryde Fire Station to announce the winning entry, attended by the four shortlisted designers and their families.

The panel consisted of The High Sheriff of the Isle of Wight Kay Marriott, Acting Chief Inspector Andy McDonald, Louise Walker from Isle of Wight Ambulance Service and Annie Staley, whose granddaughter Evey was killed by a drink-driver on the Island in August 2012.

Along with the panel, Ryde NPT officers and HIWFRS firefighters were on hand to congratulate the finalists.

Finty Lovett, aged 10, was declared the winner and got first pick of the prizes, which included a short caravan and hot tub break donated by Away Resorts, a family ticket to Robin Hill’s Polar Bear Extravaganza, a family ticket for Tapnell Farm, and a family ticket for the Isle of Wight Steam Railway.

Millie Long, aged 10 took second place and 11-year-old Bonnie Henderson was awarded third place. Annie Staley and the High Sheriff also presented a certificate of high commendation to Mattie Johnson for her fantastic poster design.

Each year emergency services workers are called out to incidents caused by drink-driving, and it is particularly prevalent over the festive season.

Drink-driving is illegal as it impairs your ability to drive and puts lives at risk— even if it’s just one.

Crew Manager David Lines, of the HIWFRS Community Safety team said:  

“Once again, we are working closely with our partners to make our roads safer for everyone across Hampshire and Isle of Wight. 

“The best way to deal with road traffic collisions is to prevent them from happening in the first place. 

“It’s such an important message to get out to as many people as possible – don’t drink and drive. It’s simply not worth the risk.” 

Speaking at the event, Acting Chief Inspector Andy McDonald said:

“In the last 10 years, 200-300 people have died on UK roads as a result of somebody drink-driving. That’s not accounting for injuries and damage to property.

“It’s still seen as one of those things that’s socially acceptable in some walks of life. We will always prosecute when we find people committing this kind of offence. I think I speak for all of our partners when I say we don’t want this to happen in the first place.

“Raising awareness is so important, and the Staley family have done an amazing job over the last 10 years of highlighting such an important topic on the Isle of Wight.

“You can never have too much awareness, and what stronger message can we put out than having the voices of Island young people talking about the consequences of drinking and driving.”

Lewis Campbell, Road Safety Officer for Isle of Wight Council, said:

“We’re grateful for the proactive road safety education being delivered in schools by the Ryde Neighbourhoods Policing Team. This work boosts the profile of road safety on the Island, raises awareness around the serious issue of drink-driving and compliments the Isle of Wight Council’s Christmas advertising campaign.

“We would like to send a huge congratulations to the competition winners Finty, Millie and Bonnie. Great work!

“Lastly, the Isle of Wight Council’s Junior Travel Ambassador programme provides guidance and resources for primary schools who wish to deliver road safety education to their pupils. We encourage any interested schools to contact the Council.”

Isle of Wight High Sheriff Kay Marriott said at the ceremony:

“It is always a great honour for me to be involved in these community events, and it has been particularly good fun to look through all of the wonderful posters.

“Shortlisting winners was a really difficult decision so well done to the four who came this evening.

“I want to thank all of the emergency services who really embraced this and have been instrumental in making this happen. It is a real privilege for me to play a small part in it.

“On behalf of the community, I want to say thank you to everyone who has participated, and I look forward to seeing the posters all around the Island.”

As a thank you for all of their efforts, each school that took part in the competition was given a tin of chocolates donated by Tesco.