Carrick on Suir Motor Club - KEEP THE RACE IN ITS PLACE

Carrick on Suir Motor Club - KEEP THE RACE IN ITS PLACE

Posted: October 8, 2015 10:06 AM

Carrick on Suir Motor Club are using National Road Safety week (October 5th-11th) as an opportunity to highlight their activities during the year ahead in the post primary schools of Waterford, South Tipperary and Kilkenny. Motorsport Ireland's "Keep the Race in its Place" campaign is part of the F?d?ration Internationale de l'Automobile's (FIA) support of the UN decade of action to save lives on the road and is aimed particularly at drivers aged from 17 to 24.

On a local level the Carrick on Suir Motor Club have been actively promoting the campaign since its inception in 2011 at their many events and through their school visits which are aimed primarily at transition year students. The club members not only share the statistics of those injured, disabled and killed on Irish roads through speed but they will also bring along a road car and a rally car to the school with the sole objective of simply explaining the differences between normal road driving and competitive driving that the students might try to replicate on the public roads now or in the future. The two cars will be used to demonstrate just how vulnerable drivers and passengers are in a standard vehicle compared to that of a specially prepared car for competition use. Students will not only learn about the extra safety elements in the construction of the rally car but they will also get the chance to experience first-hand being strapped into its competition seats while wearing a helmet with a head and neck support device. The club run entirely by volunteers will also use the opportunity to emphasize the amount work that goes into ensuring motorsport events run as safely as possible in a controlled environment very different from anything the students will encounter during their everyday driving.

Showing their support for the campaign with Carrick on Suir Motor Club members Jamie Kent, Billy Collins, James Coleman and Claire O'Donoghue as they launched their school year programme were representatives from An Garda Siochana, Superintendent John Mulligan, Sergeant Tony Merrigan, Gemma Jacob (Waterford City & County Council Road Safety Officer) and Martina Holden (TY) Scoil Mhuire in Carrick On Suir which will be the first visit this term on October 14th. In order to spread the "Keep the Race in its Place" message throughout the catchment area of the club there are two more school visits already scheduled for Colaiste Eamann Ris, Callan, Co. Kilkenny on the 11th of November and St. Pauls Community College, Waterford on the 9th of December.