Cork Students Sway County Council With Road Safety Plans

Sometimes, the most impactful acts of social innovation are focused on changing one small thing for the better in one small corner of the globe. That’s the lesson the YSI team behind the ‘Road Safety in Carrignavar’ project have learned after Cork County Council allocated €40,000 towards realising their goal of implementing a pedestrian crossing in their village.

Josh Hanover, Dylan Florish, Cathal O’Connor and Michael Kozlowski, students at Coláiste An Chroí Naofa in Carrignavar, Co. Cork, set out with the goal of improving road safety in the local area to reduce the risk of road traffic accidents and increase peace of mind for motorists and pedestrians. There is currently only “one uncontrolled crossing” in the village according to the students, who added “This is an issue because it can be quite dangerous to cross the roads considering the amount of road traffic in the area, many of us have nearly been run over during these peak hours of traffic”.

The team was inspired by United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation.

Working with Cork Road Design Office road engineer Aiden Lynch, and Cork County Council area engineer Gerard O’Hora, the students were able to choose a suitable location and design the crossing. Now that the Council has made the funding available, work on the new pedestrian crossing is expected to begin in late 2021. The crossing will connect both the primary and secondary schools to the local housing estates.

The team members said “We have empowered people by showing people that anyone can make a difference if they try hard enough”. After recognising a local problem that needed to be solved these students worked with engineers to bring the issue to the attention of local authorities and provide a solution. The implementation of the pedestrian crossing will improve the safety of local people, including schoolchildren who will now have a safe way to cross the road before and after school. 

On top of the huge success of getting funding approval for their project, the students also won the YSI ‘Make Our World Safer’ Challenge Award for their efforts. Coláiste An Chroí Naofa teacher Carol Manley told the media “It’s huge that they[the students] now know the power they have to implement change”.

Reacting to the news, YSI co-founder and CEO Rachel Collier said “As YSI marks 20 years, I continue to be inspired by Ireland’s young people. Social innovation education is not confined within the walls of schools. It is about young people taking their place in their communities and society”.