Since Bobby’s accident, his family have campaigned for safer roads outside all schools.
After a long campaign with Liverpool city council, Bobby’s parents were successful in getting many changes made on Leyfield Road to improve the safety outside Bobby’s school (Blackmoor Park Infants & Junior, School). The changes that that were made to leyfield road include guardrails, two flashing speed cameras, two pelican crossings with raised speed bumps and posts at the end of side roads to stop people parking unsafe. The have proven to be very successful in making the road safer, we have also helped other schools to improve safety on their school roads, by attending meetings & giving advice.
Bobbys trust teamed up with Radio city in October 2016 to implement BOBBY ZONES outside all Liverpool primary schools. This has been hugely successful & now the trust are trying to have BOBBY ZONES outside all schools in the UK, Stephen Twigg (Local MP for West Derby) is in the process of taking this to parliament.
Bobby Zones
- Maximum speed limit 20 mph – slower depending on amount of children around
- Do not stop within zone
- Do not drop off within zone or pick up even if line of traffic stops
- Do not park on pavements or half on pavements within zone – this can force pedestrians onto the road or distract other drivers
- Be extra vigilant children can be impulsive.
- Do not park in side streets blocking the walk way for children to cross side roads
BASICALLY, IT’S A SLOW ZONE THAT WILL KEEP TRAFFIC FLOWING SLOWLY WITHOUT ANY OBSTRUCTIONS
Childrens Road Safety Story Book
SUPERBOB was launched in September 2016, this is a children’s story book that educates children about road safety. Local Liverpool author Jude Lennon who wrote the book works with the trust & delivers assembly’s to schools this includes giving the school a free copy of SUPERBOB, reading the story to the children, followed by roleplays & giving children key messages for road safety. We have a second children’s story book which is getting launched in March 2017 the key messages in this book are parent parking around schools.
Some of the Bobby Colleran Trust’s Achievements
- We have donated £10,000.00 to alder hey neuro department – which helps children with head injuries etc. bobby has two rooms on this department ‘Inspired by Bobby Colleran’ room number 16 (which also has facilities for children with leg injuries/disability’s) Room 13 (chosen as Bobby’s birthday is 13th March).
- We have donated thousands of Hi-Viz vests to primary schools across Liverpool which help to promote the safety of children as this makes them more visible going to & from school.
- We have donated £15,000.00 to Blackmoor park infants (Bobby’s school) for Bobby’s fun memorial which is a cave that the children can play in & also have outdoor learning. This project is ongoing & we would like to add more stuff to the school. A memorial bench or flower garden was not what we wanted for Bobby as he was to fun & mischievous, So we want his memorial to be fun for all children.
- We are currently in the process of getting a book written by Jude Lennon (local author) this book will again be fun but will have road safety measures throughout the book aimed at children & parents. Our aim is to give every primary school in Liverpool a copy of the book & also people will be able to purchase a copy.
- Our main aim as a charity is to have a 20mph Bobby zone outside every school in Liverpool , (which contains a flashing speed sign warning people of their speed & some sort of safe crossing). We have worked hard since Bobby’s accident & have had many changes made on Leyfield Road & can already see a difference with the safety of the road. We would like to be able to achieve this for all schools as every child should be safe. We are also currently starting to work with Belvedere school to help them achieve what we have, for their school (since the accident that happened on 12th February).
- We have given most schools in Liverpool Slow Down for Bobby posters to put on the school gates.
