MPA reinforces quarry safety message
Stay Safe Campaign aligned with work of other safety organizations and emergency services
THE Mineral Products Association (MPA)’s Stay Safe Campaign is reinforcing the safety messages in two other campaigns being run this month; the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI)’s ongoing ‘Respect the Water’ campaign and the Royal Life Saving Society UK (RLSS UK)’s ‘Drowning Prevention Week’.
The RNLI campaign places particular emphasis on how floating can help save your life if you are suddenly plunged into water or get into difficulty. The MPA has asked its members to share the video that highlights how understanding this simple technique could help save your life.
The Drowning Prevention Week campaign aims to ensure that everyone knows how to have fun and stay safe near water, and launches an Adopt a School scheme which is expressly designed to engage schools, parents, volunteers and pupils in water safety education, using a variety of free and flexible resources produced by the RLSS UK.
The MPA will reinforce this message by writing to more than 1,000 primary schools that are located within a two-mile radius of either an active or former quarry site where there is water or other high risks have been identified. The letter will reinforce key safety messages and enclose samples of the Charlie Crow resources developed by the MPA to help engage young children.
The MPA will also be working with Fun Kids Radio, an award-winning children’s radio station that will be running a safety campaign over the summer holidays based around the Charlie Crow character.
Similar letters will be sent to 1,380 secondary schools or colleges of further education that are located within a five-mile radius of high-risk sites. These letters will place particular emphasis on cold-water shock and the impact that cold water has on a person’s ability to swim.
The letters will call on head teachers to share simple safety messages with pupils, colleagues and their families, before the start of the summer holidays. In Wales, the MPA will also promote the new Welsh Baccalaureate Challenge on Water Safety, encouraging schools to promote this to their pupils and encouraging pupils to participate in the new academic year.
The current spell of unusually hot weather has already claimed the lives of two teenage boys swimming in areas of open water that have been described as reservoirs or former quarries. These tragic deaths highlight why sharing these messages and working with others to educate the public is so important.
Nigel Jackson, chief executive of the MPA, said: ‘It’s shocking to think that around 400 people needlessly die from drowning in UK inland and coastal waters every year, and thousands more suffer injuries, some life-changing, through near-drowning experiences.
‘Incredibly, one person dies [from drowning] every 20 hours in the UK and drowning is the leading cause of accidental death of children in the UK. We are proud to align the Stay Safe Campaign with these safety organizations and the emergency services.
‘The community engagement work our members undertake plays an essential part in meeting our collective responsibility to raise public awareness of the potential hazards associated with open water, such as quarry lakes and reservoirs, and in helping members of the public to understand how to be safe near water.’
