UK Public Urged to Support Petition and Help Save Lollipop People

    GLASGOW, SCOTLAND, March 24, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The UK public have been urged to back a petition which highlights the importance of lollipop people and road safety in the community.

The petition, which can be signed at www.surveymonkey.com/savethelollipop, was organised by Kwik-Fit Insurance, one of the world's leading car insurance distributors, through its Lollipop Person of the Year campaign.

The Kwik-Fit Insurance Lollipop Person of the Year awards, which have been supporting lollipop people across the country for since 2005, encouraged every primary school in Britain to nominate their lollipop person and explain why they were a deserving winner, with the London and overall UK award being won by Pauline Martin of Herne Hill who campaigned tirelessly for several years to have a zebra crossing installed outside her school - one of the main routes into the capital

To launch the campaign, Kwik-Fit Insurance commissioned a UK-wide road safety survey of more than 1,000 pupils aged between seven and 14. The results revealed that 40 per cent, or 2.2 million children, are risking their lives every day running across the road without looking, yet still there is a shortage of lollipop people across the country and further cuts expected.
Even more concerning was the fact that 1.1m, or half again admitted to running across the road without checking for traffic all the time.

The study also found that 85 percent of youngsters or 1.7million children admitted crossing the road without using a marked crossing or lollipop person every day. That's despite more than three-quarters (75 per cent) admitting they don't always feel confident crossing the road on their own.

June Lynch, managing director of Kwik-Fit Insurance, added: "We were overwhelmed by the stories, videos and pictures sent in by school children across the UK explaining how valuable their lollipop person was.

"We are determined to help improve the UK's road safety record for children and we think the Lollipop Person of the Year campaign petition is a good way to raise awareness of the important role played by lollipop people in making roads safer and in helping to safeguard their jobs in the coming months and years."

To sign the petition and help raise awareness of the important role of the lollipop person, and to show councils across the UK the high regard in which they are held please visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/savethelollipop.

Please visit http://www.kwik-fitinsurance.com/ for more information.

Issued by The BIG Partnership on behalf of Kwik-Fit Insurance.

For further information, please contact Charles Cameron or Kirstin Aitken at The BIG Partnership on 0141 333 9585 or [email protected] or [email protected].

Website: http://www.bigpartnership.co.uk

# # #