The rugby region has joined forces with Carmarthenshire County Council’s Road Safety Unit and its mascot Gari Gosafe to help boost awareness and educate pupils about road and car safety – including crossing roads, being seen when out and about, cycling safely, walking to school and staying safe in the car.
And the popular and colourful seven foot Gari Gosafe mascot recently meet up with his Scarlets counterpart ‘Cochyn’, some Scarlets players and their children to launch the Scarlets support initiative.
The Scarlets will be producing a range of road safety materials and education packs in association with the Council that will be distributed throughout the schools of Carmarthenshire on Scarlets visits and during the region’s packed summer touring schedule.
The Scarlets will be raising road safety messages through a range of initiatives including player profile cards, wall charts, team posters, car freshners, sticker books and stickers and signage.
Scarlets and Wales international Dafydd Jones joined up with Gari and his young children to kick start the new campaign.
Dafydd Jones said: “Becoming a Dad, you are much more aware of keeping your children safe in the car and when you’re out and about. It’s really important to keep the message out there and with Gari Gosafe, it’s a brilliant and fun way to highlight that amongst younger children.
“We’ll be doing all we can to help promote road safety in the coming months.”
Gari Gosafe is the brainchild of road safety officers at Carmarthenshire County council.
Road safety officer Keith Griffiths said: “The Gari Gosafe campaign is aimed at children who have gone to school for the first time.
“It is an exciting time in their lives but with this new freedom comes dangers like roads and traffic.
“It is vital to educate children and we are constantly looking at new ways of doing this. We are delighted that the Scarlets are being so proactive in helping us spread the message and to have high profile players backing our work is great to see!”
Julie David, Hospitality and Marketing Manager at the Scarlets said: “We will be taking out the messages about Road Safety in as many of our community sessions with school children as possible.
“We have a busy community activity programme at the Scarlets and it’s an important part of maintaining our close links with our big Scarlets family and supporters young and older. As part of our networking, we are delighted to support important initiatives when we are out and about – such as promoting road safety to children.
“Our campaign with the Council will highlight a number of key areas to prevent any accidents including keeping safe by being seen, crossing roads safely, staying alert walking out and about, cycling safely, how to stay safe in the car and walking to school.”
