DIAL-A-COMMUNITY BUS
NEWS
2006
DIAL-A-BUS Drives Police Saftey Message Trough
Pittodrie
by Rachel Milne and Alan Brown.
As everyone knows, Grampian Police are constantly
asking the motoring public to think about the way they drive
in an attempt to reduce the number of serious and fatal crashes
on the roads of Grampian.
The Road Casualty Reduction Unit (RCRU) of Grampian Police is
at the forefront of this work. Sgt Alan Brown of the RCRU is
also a Dial-a-Community Bus Director and MiDAS and MiDAS for
cars trainer.
During 2005; 243 people were seriously injured
and 53 lives were lost in collisions across the region; unfortunately
many of these were in the Buchan area.
In early 2006 Alan, and Road Safety Officer
Lorna Dakers from the RCRU, organised an event in conjunction
with Aberdeen Football Club (AFC) to give a two fold message.
It highlighted the high number of serious and fatal injuries
in 2005 and raised public awareness in relation to the use of
mobile telephones whilst driving.
Through contacts in the Buchan area, 32 pupils from Stuartfield
Primary School were chosen to go to Pittodrie for the Aberdeen
v Hibs match on Saturday 8 April tickets were very kindly donated
by AFC.
Special T-shirts carrying a message about driving
and using mobile telephones were designed and produced by Pom
Print based in Mintlaw and these, along with the tickets for
adult supervision of the Stuartfield children, were kindly paid
for by Mcintosh Plant Hire at Echt.
Having sorted all this out, the only remaining
problem was how to get 42 people from Stuartfield to Aberdeen
and back – a problem easily resolved by Buchan Dial a
Community Bus.
Because of the historically good links with
Grampian Police which have been enhanced through Alan’s
involvement with Dial-a-Community Bus, the project has benefited
greatly. We have been able to access presentations and training
from the Road Casualty Reduction Unit, the time needed for MiDAS
and other training (given as help in kind) and management training
and mentoring available at all times of the day (and night and
weekends sometimes!).
DACB was happy to be able to reciprocate this
kindness for once, and so we offered to provide our three minibuses
to transport the group to and from Pittodrie.
Rachel offered to drive one minibus and “bullied”
her husband David into driving another, Mike Ferris; one of
our long standing volunteers (and coincidentally another policeman!)
agreed to drive the third.
On the day of the match, the Dial-a-Buses were
heard before they were seen with everyone singing their hearts
out in support of AFC. A certain Director who will go nameless
(well…ok…it was Alan actually!) showed how sad CT
people are when he commented how good it would be to see all
three green buses travel in convoy to Pittodrie!
At Pittodrie, all the Stuartfield children
and adult helpers – including the DACB staff and volunteers
– together with various ground staff, ball boys and girls,
catering staff and even the Aberdeen football team for the pre-match
warm up, were all kitted out in the special t-shirts. Rachel
admitted to feeling like the Michelin man (or woman!) with all
the layers on AND the T shirt over the top…but it made
a visual statement!
AFC mascot Angus the Bull was also there helping
Spiky the Think Road Safety campaign hedgehog mascot. Both had
to sign many autographs demanded by over exited youngsters!
Their 5 minutes of fame!
At half time, all the children were given handfuls
of balloons – 243 red ones representing the serious injury
victims from 2005 and 53 black ones representing the fatalities.
They were led out onto the centre circle to the accompaniment
of announcements to the crowd and released their balloons in
front of the 14,000 crowd.
Releasing the balloons
The day overall was a brilliant success with
the two road safety messages being presented to an audience
of a size not regularly achievable by the Unit.
The children had a fantastic day – AFC had provided face
painting and clown entertainers made balloon art for all the
children in the Family stand – the result going home being
an 'invasion' of Stuartfield by numerous red and white painted
children!
Everyone is happy even the older members of the party
As for the Dial-a-Bus drivers…..all three
went home tired but happy that everyone had a good day and Rachel
vowed never to sing another Aberdeen Football club song ever
again!
We were very pleased that the day was a success,
Dial-a-Community Bus had some good PR and more importantly;
we had been able to return one of the many acts of kindness
from Grampian Police.
Aberdeen won 1-0 to top the day off!
