School Bus Safety – ‘Jonnie Rocket – The Ride of Terror’

During the 2009 a public sector organisation approached Jonnie Rocket Ltd with a view to using the ‘Jonnie Rocket’ character for a new project on School Bus Safety.

Previously, this particular local authority had worked in partnership with several of their local bus operators to address the policing of bad behaviour on school transport.  They’d set up matched funding arrangements for the installation of CCTV systems on their secondary school transport vehicles.

Although this project was quite successful it became clear that they needed to put in place a preventative strategy, by educating the pupils about the dangers of bad behaviour on transport.

As they became aware of ‘Jonnie Rocket’ they felt that the ethos of his character matched perfectly with the needs of their school bus strategy and they commissioned Jonnie Rocket Ltd. to commence work on an innovative new project.  We named this project ‘Jonnie Rocket – The Ride of Terror’, which will be delivered to all primary school pupils throughout the area of the local authority.  The project will promote safer travel on all forms of transport and will in particular increase awareness of the serious implications of bad behaviour on school transport.

The original intention of the project was to deliver the project simply through the creation of an animated DVD, which Jonnie Rocket Ltd. produced.  However, having taken advice from various educationalists it was decided to produce a vibrant, colourful A4 sized book to accompany the work, giving the project far greater sustainability.

Each primary school pupil in the area will receive a personal copy of the book to take home, reinforcing the message.  This will add value to the school lesson and the animated DVD, and will enable the parents to stress the importance of the project to their children, enabling us to deliver the safety message with greater conviction.

We are also producing a ‘Teacher Resource Pack’ to accompany the project, which will address our five key safety messages.  These all relate to the critical issue of not distracting the driver: excessive noise levels, throwing objects around the bus, boarding and alighting the vehicle appropriately, the correct wearing of seatbelts and the serious impact of bullying.

We feel delighted to be able to use ‘Jonnie Rocket’ to engage the pupils through the use of animation, giving both greater value to the project and a serious message to our mission, ensuring that the project is truly sustainable year on year.

‘Jonnie Rocket’ does what most young people like to do, he explores and has fantastic adventures, but more importantly he is non-confrontational, non-violent, and has a totally centred, grounded approach to problem solving.  As such he is a brilliant role model for the ‘Jonnie Rocket – The Ride of Terror’ project.

We have piloted the project within the area and have received excellent feedback from both teachers and pupils alike.  Through the use of Jonnie Rocket the schools have discovered a character that the pupils love and admire, and can immediately engage with.

Through the use of this innovative project we will be able to promote our safety messages, and the benefits will be huge for all concerned:

• passengers will have improved personal safety whilst using the transport,
• bus drivers will not be distracted as easily and will therefore experience increased concentration levels; hence their short and long term stress will be much reduced,
• pedestrians will be safer, as they will not be at risk of having objects thrown at them from bus windows,
• other road users will no longer be distracted by the pupils on the buses, therefore reducing the risk of accidents.

The project supports the local authority’s work and will achieve tangible improvements in transport safety.  This work is a major priority both at local and national levels.

The project will be launched in the 2011 autumn term and at that point will be made available to other local authorities throughout the country.

Watch the web site for progress updates.