Children from the Peace Country are learning how to be safer around railroad tracks. This is the second year Grande Prairie and Area Safe Communities has held a new and young driver training program as part of Rail and Traffic Safety Week.
Acting Executive Director Cindy Blinston says it’s important to host the event in Grande Prairie because of all the railroad crossings in the city.
“In our community, there’s a lot of rail tracks that intersect roadways so it’s really important for drivers to know how to handle that…to avoid and prevent injuries.”
As part of the event, 15 grade 10 students from Beaverlodge were at Safety City to learn about the dangers of distracted and impaired driving through games and experiments. Blinston says they want to teach the students how to be safe now so they don’t develop bad driving habits in the future.
“We feel like youth is the best group of citizens to spread the message and make change cause we already know cell phones distraction and all these things are a problem…We want the youth to be aware so that they can help spread the message to their parents, their families and their friends to make safer roads in the long run.”
Safety City will also be hosting a public event on Saturday from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. where families will get to try some of the same activities the students did.