A CAPACITY 300-strong crowd celebrated the lives of three young Islanders who lost their lives in road accidents.
The ‘Don’t Forget’ event at St George’s Park, Newport, on Friday was organised by the Isle of Wight Council as part of its on-going campaign to improve road safety.
Island bands including Llana and the IT Kids and Goodbye Stereo were among performers at the event dedicated to Pascha Burgoyne, 16, Tom Rees, 17, and Martin Hawker, 18, who all lost their lives in traffic accidents in the West Wight in the last two years.
Tracey Skipper, IW Council senior road safety officer, said: “It was a fantastic event. A capacity audience turned the event into a fitting tribute to Pascha, Tom and Martin.
“It was clear from the comments made to me by many of those who were there that the need to drive safely had really got home.
“Once again I would like to say how grateful I am to the parents of Pascha, Tom and Martin for being so brave in sharing their tragic experiences. It is by highlighting the cases of real people who were known and loved within the local communities that we hope to really get our road safety messages across most effectively.”
Diana Tuson, IW Council cabinet member for Safer Communities said: “I am delighted that our road safety campaign once again seems to be reaching some of the people who statistics tell us are among the most likely to be involved in road traffic accidents.
“As the campaign continues we will be targeting other aspects of road safety with the aim of reducing the number of accidents occurring on our highways.”
The council’s road safety campaign, continues with a series of road shows highlighting speed awareness and safe driving.
The first of these is on Saturday February 2 at St James’ Square between 10am and 2pm. Part of that will be a release of balloons — with each representing the 484 serious or fatal traffic accidents on Island roads in the last five years. Further Road shows are taking place in Ryde (16th February), Shanklin (1st March) and Freshwater (15th March).
