South and North in campaign on road safety

THE National Safety Council and the Northern Ireland Department of the Environment yesterday launched a joint road safety campaign emphasising the importance of wearing seat belts.

It is the first time the authorities North and South have worked together to produce a public service campaign.

A television commercial, broadcast for the first time last night, will be shown on RTE and UTV through to next year. It shows a man and his three children travelling without seat belts. "If you don't wear a seat belt you're breaking the law, ribs, necks..." a voice says as the car crashes. An ambulance rushes the injured to hospital, where the man is shown waiting anxiously in a corridor.

The launch of the campaign in Dublin was addressed by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin; Deputy Garda Commissioner Mr P.J. Moran; Mr John Richie, director transport services, the Department of the Environment, Northern Ireland, on behalf of Mr Malcolm Moss, minister with responsibility for road safety in Northern Ireland; and Mr Joe Ainsworth, chairman of the National Safety Council.

"Three out of four people will be killed or seriously injured in a 30 m.p.h. head on crash if not wearing a seat belt," said Mr Richie.

"It seemed an ideal opportunity," said Mr David Lyle, head of McCann Erickson PR of Belfast, who produced the commercial. "And the environment, in terms of the wider political landscape, is right."