THE Rotary Club of Alloa has been helping to keep Clackmannanshire children safe, by presenting road safety booklets to schools.

They were given to all new primary one pupils in a bid to encourage parents and youngsters to think about how to keep safe and how their travel choices impact on others and the environment.

President Hector Nicolson said, “The Rotary Club sincerely hopes that parents read the important messages in the books and educate their child in road safety and environmental matters. If we all play our part, then the incidents of injury caused by road traffic collisions will be reduced if not eliminated.

“We should all be aware of the environmental, health and economic benefits of walking as opposed to travelling by car, particularly to and from school. To that end, the Rotary Club decided it would provide road safety educational materials to parents.

“Young children need to be educated about their road safety as they don’t have the experience to judge the speed and distance of an oncoming car.” The initiative was first instigated by the Rotary several years ago, and is asked to repeat it each year, and is indebted to the Clackmannanshire Council Community Warden Team, which distributes the booklets on its behalf.

The new Redwell Primary School in Alloa is one place were pupils have benefited.

Depute headteacher, Gillian Ward, said, “Redwell PS works hard to ensure that our parents and pupils understand the importance of road safety education and we really appreciate the support being given by the Rotary Club of Alloa to allow us to take this message to new pupils and parents.”