Ruben the Road Safety Bear visits Thames-Coromandel

Ruben the Road Safety Bear visits Thames-Coromandel

Ruben the Road Safety Bear will be travelling the Coromandel Peninsula this month to teach children from the area how to be safe around our roads.

The popular bear is the mascot for the Waikato Regional Council’s young road user safety programme and teaches children up to about seven years old the foundation road safety skills.

“Ruben will be delivering his road safety lessons in schools and preschools in Coromandel, Colville, Whitianga, Tairua and many places in between,” said the regional council’s transport projects administrator, Jenny Davis.

“The children will be invited to join Ruben’s Kid’s Club so they can receive exciting newsletters reminding them of his key road safety messages into the future,” said Ms Davis

Ms Davis encouraged parents to actively support road safety messages by role modelling safe road behaviour. “What children see they do, so being a good role model is an important part of teaching children good road safety practices,” she said.

The regional council’s young road user safety programme saw Ruben deliver nearly 300 road safety lessons to 16,511 children throughout the Waikato last year.

Ruben’s website features his key safety messages, activities for children, as well as helpful links and information for teachers, parents and caregivers. Ruben’s five key messages are:

• Be bright, dress bright: When out and about, wear bright clothing so other road users can easily see you.

• Seat yourself right, buckle in tight: Buckle into a correctly sized car seat on every trip in a vehicle.

• Stop, look, listen and link: Before crossing the road stop back from the curb, look and listen for vehicles and bikes, link hands with a safe person and walk quickly across the road, still looking as you go.

• Look out for sneaky driveways: When you are walking on the footpath, remember to ‘stop, look, listen and link’ at each driveway just like when you are crossing the road.

• Helmet on right and tight: Wear a correctly fitting helmet every time you ride your bike or scooter.