THOUSANDS of third-level Limerick students are leading the way in a potentially life-saving project which highlights the deadly consequences of speeding.
It’s part of a road safety initiative by the University of Limerick and An Garda Síochána that has seen third-level students as part of the ESB-sponsored Road Safety Reimagined initiative, highlighting the lifelong and potentially devastating impact of speeding on our roads.
Now in its fourth year, and led by UL’s Dr Christina O’Connor and Sergeant Tony Miniter of An Garda Síochána’s Limerick Road Policing Division, ‘Road Safety Reimagined’ seeks to harness the collective power of students by encouraging them to submit marketing campaigns in promotion of road safety.
This year’s event saw top submissions from more than 1,000 students from eight participating institutions: UL, Maynooth University, University College Cork (UCC), South East Technological University (SETU), Atlantic Technological University (ATU), Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), Dublin City University (DCU), and Moyross Youth Academy.
With engaging submissions centring upon the power of the passenger to speak up against speeding and how fatalities have a ripple effect across entire communities, it was a poignant concept developed around childhood grief that claimed the overall winning prize.
Produced by SETU students Harry Watkins, Patryk Pawlak, Stephen Sokiri, Andrei Bors, and Kasey Mulhearne, the poster was designed to resemble a crumpled piece of paper featuring a young child’s scrawling handwriting. Artfully conceived of as a letter to their deceased sibling, the words in red crayon read: ‘Dear brother, it’s been three years since the crash. I miss you.’
Dr Christina O’Connor, Associate Professor in Marketing at UL’s Kemmy Business School, applauded the work of this year’s students.
“This event is student centred, with the voice of young people from seven Irish universities and Moyross Youth Academy presented in visual art form through the Showcase Posters. It is empowering to see our young people work with An Garda Síochána to tackle the dangers of speeding on our roads through creative and outside the box thinking,” said Dr O’Connor.
Sergeant Tony Miniter described this year’s winning submission as “road safety advertising at its best”.
“An Garda Síochána, in partnership with University of Limerick and proudly supported by ESB, are doing all we can to tackle the problem of speeding. The standard of this year’s posters was at an all-time high, so well done to all the students who participated,” said Sergeant Miniter.
Each year, a highlight of Road Safety Reimagined is the presentation of the Oisín Crotty Road Safety Inspiration Award, sponsored by ESB. This year’s award was presented to Sylvia and Eamon Mooney from Kilkenny, who tragically lost their 17-year-old son Cian in a car incident in 2022.