There are 13.5k trespass incidents and more than 20 lives lost every year. Railway safety matters and education should start at a young age.
Traditionally, the safety messages have been delivered through face-to-face visits to schools, but this means that only a small percentage of the target school age population can be engaged with.
At New Socks Media, we have come up with a solution which allows these key safety messages to be communicated in an innovative and effective way. With creating a YouTube video and an accompanying quiz website, we are hoping to educate young people and reduce railway incidents across Wales.
Network Rail Community Safety teams liaise with populations across the UK routes to deliver critical messages around lineside safety. A key part of this is working with children, through schools and other institutions, to ensure that they are aware of the dangers associated with the railway.
Traditionally, these messages have been delivered through face-to-face visits, using projection technology to lead class or assembly-based discussion. Resource and logistical constraints mean that Network Rail can only ever engage with a small percentage of the target school age population.
It would like to develop a solution for Wales which allows these key safety messages to be communicated in an innovative, effective way, which enables the user to learn and explore outside of the classroom.
We conducted research to see how young people are consuming information outside of the classroom. During our research it ruled out some initial ideas and brought our attention to creating a YouTube video and an accompanying quiz website.
The YouTube video story was drawn up to utilise well known Welsh celebrities that can teach young people the importance of rail safety, in a fun, energetic manner. The accompanying quiz website utilised kinaesthetic learning to ensure the message was driven home.
The campaign can be rolled out across Wales, without the need for face-to-face visits and will be backed by key partners across Wales. With this campaign rolling out soon, we are hoping to educate young people and reduce railway incidents across Wales.
