INNISFAIL - Innisfail Middle School is working with CP Rail to reinforce an important message about train and railway safety.
The school is introduced a poster contest for students after CP Rail recently brought forth the idea to them.
“It’s a rail safety poster promoting safe activity in and around the train and that area,” said Clark Peters, principal at Innisfail Middle School.
“We think any chance we can to support safe habits is a plus.”
The poster contest ran from Nov. 13 to 22, said Peters, adding the school also discusses farm safety and school bus safety every year as well.
“We do a school bus safety poster contest in Chinook’s Edge School Division so we’re doing a similar one for CP Rail,” he said. “We thought this was a great thing.”
There will be several winners for the poster contest, noted Peters, adding that the top prize is a ride on this year’s CP Holiday Train when it comes through Innisfail and area on Dec. 7.
“We’ve got a CP Rail representative and an (Innisfail) RCMP member and some other judges who will be involved in picking the winning poster,” said Peters.
Innisfail RCMP Const. Craig Nelson, the detachment's school resource officer, said the poster campaign is important because we want to ensure our youth are safe.
"Especially due to the proximity of the school to the train tracks," said Nelson. "Some prior incidents involving youth and the train tracks have caused police and school officials to recognize the need for improved safety and education."
A call to CP Rail about the contest was not immediately returned.
However, Gary Leith, the town’s protective services manager, also applauded the poster contest and said it’s a way for students to demonstrate responsibility when it comes to railway safety.
“It gives the children ownership and also allows them to become better informed of the hazards in and around the railway that comes through town here,” said Leith, who is the town's key senior management official working with the schools and CP to improve safety along the rail tracks, which are currently unregulated for pedestrian crossings.
“There is an awesome prize for the winner, a ride on the CP Holiday Train,” added Leith. “As I understand it this is the first initiative of this type with this prize in Central Alberta. It’s a great opportunity.”
Leith spoke to the need to reinforce that message, along with the responsibility of parents, teachers and students themselves.
“It’s the responsibility that comes down through from parents to teachers to their peers and that’s where hopefully this message will come through” he said. “Is that the children themselves will be the eyes and ears there so if they see somebody who isn’t heeding the risk and not getting the message, they’re the ones who are going to deliver the message as well to them. Also to let people know if somebody is on the track or at risk.”
He noted the important role for everyone in the community when it comes to railway safety.
“We all have a part to play in this, including the children themselves,” said Leith. “This is about empowering them to deliver their own message.
“This is their opportunity to deliver the same message that we (adults) want and it’s about keeping safe in and around that rail track,” Leith concluded.
