Across Derbyshire in 2022, 30 people were killed and 1,895 people were injured on the roads. A recent school visit by colleagues from Cemex UK aimed to educated children about road safety.

The visit to Church Gresley Infant and Nursery School in Swadlincote was organised by Sales Executive, Stuart Wood, whose own son attends the school. It involved safety sessions delivered in each classroom across the day, and a visit by a Cemex truck.

The children learnt about being safe around large trucks, blind spots, crossing roads safely and bicycle safety.

Speaking about why visits like these matter, Stuart Wood said: “It’s starting them young and starting to educate about road safety. It’s never too early, my is only five years old.” The school itself is a member of the John Taylor Multi Academy Trust, and serves a wide range of schoolchildren up to seven years old before they go on to junior or primary school.

From the school, the visit was overseen by the Headteacher, Mrs Jo Cripps, who said: “We have had a full day of road safety. We’ve had a truck, we’ve had safety equipment and we’ve had children climbing into the cab. All classes have had a presentation where road safety has been explained to the children. You only have to look at the media to see how many deaths and accidents happen on the roads. Our children are very young so it’s something we find very important here. You hear about accidents with cyclists and a lot of it is because they don’t understand that lorry drivers can’t always see them. So it’s really about an awareness. Thank you so much to the Cemex team for their visit.”

Photos: Top Left to Right: Grant Garner, Dave Besford, Stuart Wood and Ian Phoenix

Bottom Left: Stuart and Keren Castle

Bottom Right: Stuart’s son George