CAR SAFETY WORKSHOPS

Minister for Education Mary Hannafin with our students

A unique and vital community outreach project currently being run at Inishowen Maritime Museum involves teaching children of all ages the importance of staying safe while a passenger or driver of any vehicle. The fatalities on our roads, especially of young people, are unacceptably high! Through our Car Safety Awareness Programme, we encourage a better understanding of the implications of speed and carelessness. We have, to date, provided our safety workshops to over 200 primary school children on Inishowen and 200 secondary students from all over Donegal. The feedback has been extremely positive from students, teachers and parents.

Primary students construct passive safety restraints for a hen's egg, using paper, rubber bands, soda straws and cellophane tape.

Students' safety devices are then attached to miniature cars which are raced down an inclined ramp, straight into a brick wall. The students' goal is to have the egg survive the crash.

Not all student designs are successful and we've had some spectacular egg splatters!

Our workshop content is based on the successful methods pioneered by our Swedish partners, TankNik, and Autoliv, the world's largest manufacturer of airbags and other car safety devices.

We have separated the learning levels into primary school ages (basic safety as a passenger, how to properly wear seatbelts and building model cars to crash test) and secondary students who will be allowed to play "Crash Test Dummy" and experience a simulated car impact from our crash sled, shown above.

To book or for questions,

Email the Museum

Or ring the museum at 074 938 1363. (From N.I.: +353 74 938 1363)