Tragic child’s parents want road safety taught in school
THE parents of a four-year-old boy killed by a drunk driver have called for education and road safety to be part of the school curriculum to help tackle rising road deaths.
Yesterday, on the eve of the tenth anniversary their son Ciarán’s death, Gillian and Ronan Treacy said road safety and responsible driving should be taught and encouraged in schools from an early age.
Mr Treacy said: ‘Young people are the demographic we are targeting with this message; they are the ones that are heading out on the roads, and if you catch them young, it will sow a positive seed in them and hopefully carry it through their driving life.’ Ms Treacy, who was seriously injured in the collision which claimed Ciarán’s life, said a combination of theory and practical road safety and driver training should be taught in schools.
She added: ‘It is one thing knowing the theory but putting it into practice is another thing.’
The couple, from Portarlington, Co. Laois, were yesterday honoured with the Oisín Crotty Road Safety Award at the University of Limerick.
Ms Treacy said their eldest son, Seán, who turns 18 this year, ‘is going to be thinking about driving soon, so it is a huge worry for us after everything that happened’.
She added: ‘We really want to make it be a part of everyday thinking that drink-driving, drug-driving is completely unacceptable.’
At yesterday’s event, students showcased road safety projects designed to highlight the dangers posed by drug-driving.
Ms Treacy, who for the past six years was a board director at the Road Safety Authority (RSA), broke down as she described how her son Ciarán was ‘just four and full of beans’ when he lost his life. Finbarr O’Rourke, from Portlaoise and now in his late 40s, was jailed after he admitted dangerous driving causing the death of Ciarán at Ballymorris, Portarlington, on April 17, 2014.