The Edmond Fogarty Memorial Award On 13th May 2009 the Road Safety Authority launched The Edmond Fogarty Memorial Award for Road Safety. Mr. Noel Brett is pictured here with Ms. Sharon Smith [teacher Colaiste Craobh Abhann Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow] and a student representing the Transition year group from the school who won the Edmond Fogarty Memorial Award for Road Safety presented by County Wicklow VEC in memory of their friend and colleague who was killed in a road traffic collision in 2001. The Award was designed and made by Mr Padraig O'Murchu of Greystones, Co Wicklow. The County Wicklow VEC Environmental Awareness Awards took place on Wednesday, 13 May, in the Brocagh Resource Centre in Laragh, Co. Wicklow. The keynote speaker was Mr. Noel Brett, CEO of the Road Safety Authority, who travelled from Ballina for this event. For the local VEC it was a very special night since they were launching the Edmond Fogarty Memorial Award. This Award is for a project in the new Road Safety Category in the Environmental Awareness competition which is now running for 11 years in the VEC.  Edmond started his teaching career in St. Kevin's Community College, Dunlavin. For a time he was a research officer in the Curriculum Development Centre in Shannon, Co. Clare and thereafter served as both Vice-Principal and Principal of Abbey Community College, Wicklow Town. For a short period before his untimely death he was the Education Officer of Co. Wicklow VEC. The beautiful award presented by Mr. Brett to the winning school Collaiste Craobh Abhann was designed and created by the well-known craftsman Mr. Padraigh O'Murchu from Greystones, Co. Wicklow. The award itself is of a bronze butterfly depicting the beauty and fragility of human life. Mr Brett began his talk by making the students aware that there are very few accidents on the road; instead there are a great number of collisions and that these were caused mainly by alcohol, drugs, speed, recklessness, tiredness and the use of mobile phones. He asked the first nine rows of the audience to stand up to show how many funerals had taken place in Ireland this year to date, due to preventable road collisions. He reminded the audience that it was easy to count the dead but that the injured are often forgotten and he went on to explain how horrendous these injuries can be. Noel in his very thought-provoking speech told the students how small changes could make a huge difference to the mortality and injury rate on Irish roads. He asked them to look at their attitudes to wearing seat belts especially on the school bus or to those cyclists who are responsible enough to wear helmets and reflective clothing. He addressed the young men of the group in particular and got them to think about the huge responsibility they carry when taking the wheel. He got them to think about what it might be like to have someone's death on your hands or to be the cause of injuries that leave someone, maybe even a loved one, incapacitated for life. He reminded the girls that it is often the lad who tells you he loves you that puts you at greatest risk of being killed through excessive or inappropriate speed. He asked each student to take initiative and give appropriate advice to the young parent they see not restraining their child appropriately, to wear their own seat belt in the school bus and ensure that younger children do likewise. He ended his speech by telling us that, on his way back home, he would be trusting that every driver sharing the road with him is doing so responsibily.