Road safety award for Tony

GARDA Tony Miniter, an Ennis man who works with the Limerick Traffic Corps, has been awarded for an innovative project he devised to promote road safety.

GARDA Tony Miniter, an Ennis man who works with the Limerick Traffic Corps, has been awarded for an innovative project he devised to promote road safety.
The garda grew up in Kincora Park, Ennis, and now lives with his wife Maria, and children, Adam, 10, Isaac, six and Adriana two, on the Tulla Road, Ennis. He has been stationed in Limerick’s Henry Street Garda Station since 1998 and with the city’s traffic corps since 2004.
In late 2006, he devised The Lifesaver Project, an educational road safety programme, which uses hard-hitting Irish and international road safety messages to educate secondary school pupils, third-level pupils and people in the workplace on road safety issues.
Garda Miniter was awarded the Public Sector Award in the Road Safety Authority’s 2010 Leading Lights in Road Safety Awards, presented in Dublin Castle last week. The awards were presented by the RSA chairman, Gay Byrne, as part of Irish Road Safety Week. Mr Byrne said that the Road Safety Authority could not do the work they do without the support of these ‘Leading Lights’ whose commitment to road safety has no doubt contributed to the reduction in deaths and serious injuries on our roads.
“They do this, not to receive an award but for the benefit of children, parents, grandparents, colleagues and friends across the country so that our roads are safe for everyone. And it gives me great pride and honour to be able to thank them personally and commend them for their outstanding achievements,” he commented.
The garda came up with the idea for The Lifesaver Project four years ago, arising from his involvement in the delivery of another road safety promotion scheme, It Won’t Happen to You, to transition-year pupils.
“While I felt that this scheme was good, I also thought that the information could have been harder-hitting and made more relevant to different audiences, from school-going teenagers, right through to mature adults. I research road accident statistics worldwide and gathered a lot of information on what other countries were doing to promote road safety.
“I viewed ads from a number of different countries and found some that were quite graphic and very straight to the point and I knew that if a project was going to deliver the vital message of responsible driving, it had to be like that. Through my research, I came up with a large body of material, including ads from Denmark and Australia. I compiled all of this relevant information into a PowerPoint presentation, bought my own computer and started bringing this project, which I called The Lifesaver Project, into secondary schools,” Garda Miniter explained.
He delivered the findings of the project to pupils from all years in the schools he went to. Since then, the project has been taken on by Limerick City and County Councils, who are now funding the project being brought to secondary schools across the city and county. A paramedic from the Limerick Ambulance Service, Keith Mullane, has also joined Garda Miniter on the scheme and between them and with the assistance of student gardaí, they also use crash simulations as part of their demonstrations.  “The crash scene simulations really seem to drive the message home. Generally, we have at least two people in a car, one acting as a dead person in the car, while the other the driver, acts the part of a driver who is under the influence of drink. With the assistance of other members of the emergency services, we show how they deal with the crash, the medical attention that has to be administered to everyone in the car and finally the driver being arrested, as he is drunk. It really seems to make a clear point,” he commented.
The project sessions also include hard-hitting road death statistics, as well as talks from paramedics, firemen and an accident and emergency doctor. “I also have to talk to the audience too. I have a great love of cars, so I can talk the talk, especially with young lads who are really getting into cars. Young men, from late teens right up to men in their 30s, are our key audience, so it’s important to make the talk most relevant to them,” Garda Miniter added.
With the help of the councils in Limerick, pupils now come to organised sessions of The Lifesaver Project in various venues, which means that Garda Miniter can offer the scheme to more pupils at any one time.
Last year, Clare County Council availed of Garda Miniter’s services and he and his team delivered the project in Glór. It is planned to run a similar session in Glór again during November.
The Lifesaver Project is no longer delivered only to secondary school pupils. The Limerick local authorities have assisted in the project being brought to companies including Aughinish Alumina and Dell. Garda Miniter has also delivered the sessions to large groups of apprentices on their induction days to college placements in the Limerick Institute of Technology. “By and large, these groups are also young males so it’s a great opportunity to deliver the information to our key target audience. So far, up to 3,000 FÁS apprentices have received the project in LIT,” he confirmed.
The dedicated garda does all of this work supplementary to his regular Traffic Corps work, although he acknowledges the huge support of his superiors in Limerick, whom he says have facilitated him in delivering The Lifesaver Project by making him available whenever possible to give these talks.
He said that he devised the project because he has always been very passionate about improving the safety of all road users on Irish roads. “I respect every initiative that comes on board to try and improve road safety.
“But I really wanted to come up with a way of presenting the facts in a clear, hard-hitting way that would mean the information would definitely register with people. I definitely feel that The Lifesaver Project is helping to change the mindset of those who have come to one of our sessions. The information is positively impacting on them and I can always see by the faces of people in the audience that they are shocked and scared by what they hear and see.
“It is great to get recognition for the project but honestly, the most important part of this recognition is the focus it brings to the project, which will inevitably help me to bring it to more people.
“This project has messages for everyone, regardless of age or gender, and is much more than a school road safety project and I’m delighted it’s developing as that,” Garda Miniter said.