PCSO Sharon Chinn has recently worked with the 4 JRSOs (Junior Road Safety Officers) in Coads Green school who were planning a Twilight Walk.

Twilight Trails aim to educate children, in a fun and interactive way, about the importance of wearing flourescent and reflective clothing in poor light and at night to ensure that they are visible to other road users.

The launch of this years Twilight Trails initiatives were run throughout the winter months by the Cornwall Council Travel Awareness Team teaching the vital road safety message of Be Safe, Be Seen.

Students on the Twilight Trail wear reflective v-vests to make them visible. They walk along a dark route with nothing to show them the way but a torch and lots of reflective items which are concealed in hedges, trees and the undergrowth. The torches cause the reflective material to shine, in the same way a reflector or high visibility clothes would shine when caught in a vehicles headlight. Without reflective clothing or items a pedestrian or cyclist is only visible in dipped headlights from 30 metres away. By wearing or using reflective clothing or items they become visible at 150 metres, giving drivers five times the distance to notice them and, more importantly, avoid them.

PCSO Sharon Chinn joined the JRSOs at Coads Green school and helped with planning their event. This involved putting together a presentation, planning a route for the walk and risk assessing the event. A route was designed following numbers 0-9 cut out of reflective card and there were other reflective items hung around in the trees etc, starting from the school playground, crossing the road and finishing in the village hall playing field. Everyone taking part wore hi-visibility reflective tabards and carried a torch, they had to count how many reflective items they could find hung around the field and learnt about the difference between ‘reflective’ and ‘fluorescent’. The evening ended back in the school with Hot Chocolate!

Also attending the evening was Greg Foxwell from Cornwall Council who is the project Co-ordinator for the JRSOs.