Highways Agency says don't throw it all away

The Highways Agency is calling on Education Professionals to help improve safety on roads by joining them in a new initiative called ' Throwing it all Away' to help reduce the number of objects that are dropped or thrown on to roads from bridges over motorways and major trunk roads.

The Highways Agency, has teamed up with RoSPA, Surrey County Council and Surrey Police as well as the Highways Agency's managing agent, Mouchel Parkman, to produce an educational pack for young people aged 14-16. The pack includes: teachers/leaders introduction notes, newspaper articles, pre-session lesson plans and a CD-Rom with four scenes on which the work is based - this highlights the dangers of throwing objects onto roads and raises awareness of the repercussions of not taking responsibility for actions.

The free pack is designed to be used by schools, youth and community projects, to be linked into National Curriculum Key Stage 4 Citizenship agendas for students aged 14-16 years.

By highlighting this problem, the aim is to hit home to youngsters about the potentially lethal consequences of dropping or throwing objects from bridges onto passing traffic, combined with illustrating the repercussions of not taking responsibility for these actions. This will be done by getting as many schools, youth and community projects as possible to use the package in their lessons and programmes. These agencies have worked together in the past to reduce the number of incidents where objects are dropped or thrown from bridges. This package follows on from the earlier one for younger pupils.

Ian Mills, Highways Agency project sponsor, said: "This pack will help teachers and leaders of safety organisations to build awareness of young people of the consequences of their actions.

"This joined up work will make our roads safer and encourage young people to take responsibility for their actions."

Juliet Barratt, author of this pack, said: "Learning to take responsibility for your own actions is not an easy lesson. These incidents tend to occur spontaneously and in an environment where peer group pressure makes young people do things they would not normally do.

We are working with the Highways Agency and other agencies to encourage teachers and leaders to use this material to help raise understanding of these issues, and we hope to reduce the number of incidents."

The pack is available via website highways.gov.uk/knowledge, then follow the links through Education to the "Throwing it all Away" teaching pack.. The National Curriculum Keystage 2 pack for young people between the ages of 10 and 12, 'Just a Stones Throw', launched in 2004, can be found in the same place.