Road Safety event is a big success

The Gambia Welfare Society Leeds (TGWS) in collaboration with Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire Police Road Policing Unit has recently concluded a Road Safety Education on Friday 28 April at Hamara Centre Beeston South Leeds.

The event was sponsored by TGWS and coordinated by Yanks Sawo an RAF Airman Station at Royal Air Odiham.

At RAF Odiham Yanks Sawo is part of the RAF Odiham Road Safety Team and in collaboration with Hampshire Road Safety Team he has also organised Road Safety Events for RAF Odiham personnel, he said ”Road Safety is everyone’s business, therefore, everyone has an obligation to ensure that our communities receive sensitisation and are educated on road safety issues.”

Reaction timer

The first event was a speed reaction timer to demonstrate how long it takes a car to stop – coordinated by Becky Murray, Project Assistant – Influencing Travel Behaviour Leeds City Council. The speed reaction timer was popular and unwittingly participant became competitive – Musa Dibasey recorded the best time 29 seconds pretty close to 23 second the average stopping distance.

Becky and Nigel wonderfully explained how a small increase in speed can result in large increases in crash risk. Speed reaction timer promotes safe speed management and a reduction in speed will of course reduce the risk of accident and a greater time to recognize hazards.

Presentation

PC Nigel Fawcett-Jones, West Yorkshire Road Policing Unit delivered a hard hitting, comprehensive, excellent Road Safety  presentation, covering safer driving, speed, distractions, drink/drugs, seatbelts and mobile phones. As part of the presentation, PC Fawcett-Jones showed some devastating images of fatal road traffic collisions. These hard hitting images were well received by the group.

TGWS Leeds Message

The Gambian community in Leeds share the Yorkshire and The United Kingdom values. We are fully committed working in partnership with local authorities towards national socio-economic development of this great country. It is our desire to run many community cohesion activities but our ability is limited by two challenges, lack of own community centre and funds. We rely on member’s £5 monthly contribution but still we are ever so determined to ensure that all communities benefit from our projects. In 2016 we organised a community fire safety briefing with West Yorkshire Fire Service. As a community we are determined to do our bit for the people of Leeds.

Comments

Yanks Sawo:

Firstly, I am hugely grateful to Nigel and Becky, for delivering an excellent Road Safety presentation and a special gratitude to everyone who attended the event. Sacrificing your valuable time for road safety activities demonstrates how important you valued the safety of your families. The message and topics covered were all relevant and valuable a staunch reminder to us all about the dangers of road safety and measure to keep ourselves and our families safe.  Nigel and Becky on behalf of everyone thank you for the Stirling job.

Secondly, I am grateful to my family for the continuous support, thirdly I am very grateful to the Royal Air Force for investing on me and developing me as a person with leadership skills and attributes to do many fantastic things for myself, the RAF and my community in Leeds. Lastly, I want to thank my chain of command Fg Off Dunkley, WO Adams and FS Lewis for excellent mentoring, empowerment, support and giving me the time to do greater goods for the community. From you guys I derived the strength to challenge myself and perform better at each stage.

Coordinating road safety events is something I enjoy immensely because I care about the safety and protection of the life’s of all people.  In my opinion, I am only following the core values of the Royal Air Force and the values of which this great Country was built upon.

Amadou Touray:

Thanks bro Yanks, TGWS, all the participants and the moderators from West Yorkshire Police and Leeds City Council.  Brother Yanks for the coordination, Nigel and Becky for their resourcefulness.

Amie Badjie:

Yanks thank you for organising a very productive road safety event; the introduction you gave was great.
Even as a non-driver; I found it very informative and educational. 
Especially the car seat information is very helpful and should help to keep our children safe. 
Coming up with an event that benefits our Gambian Community is really great; the lecture can help to save life in the Community as a whole. 
Once again Many thanks and well done.

Fatou bah Sawo:

The road safety presentation was very good and I learned a lot from it.

 

This post was written by Yanks Sawo using our Create an article for South Leeds Life page.