Students from the South East Technological University have taken the top title at this year’s Road Safety Reimagined.
The University of Limerick hosted the event which saw 1,000 young people from across the country taking up the challenge to reimagine road safety through contemporary marketing concepts, developing solutions to positively impact driving behaviour.
The group studying Business at SETU, Harry Watkins, Patryk Pawlak, Kasey Mulhearne, Stephen Sokiri and Andrei Bors, were crowned the winners.
Speaking at the event, Assistant Commissioner for Roads Policing & Community Engagement, Catharina Gunne, praised SETU’s winning team: “The focus of this year’s competition was on the devastating consequences of speeding. The overall winning group’s campaign, created by SETU students Harry Watkins, Patryk Pawlak, Kasey Mulhearne, Stephen Sokiri, Andrei Bors focused on a handwritten note from a young child devasted by the loss of an older brother in a fatal road accident. The winning poster was commended for its powerful, yet simple, depiction of the grief felt by those left behind after fatal road accidents.”
Sergeant Miniter highly commended the winning group’s approach, stating that it was “road safety advertising at its best”.
Winning student Harry Watkins commented: “Having the opportunity to take part in this initiative has been a privilege from the beginning, giving us the potential to make a real difference to people’s lives.”
In total, six teams from SETU were shortlisted for the final poster showcase. In addition to winning the overall national prize, another group of SETU students from Year 2 of the BA (Hons) in International Business also received a prize for ‘Best Overall SETU poster’. The students from this group, Vitalii Myronshyn, Martin Huslik, Aaron O’Connor, Padrig Hunt, Kostiantyn Siryi, created an emotive campaign centred around ‘Speeding breaks more than limits’.
SETU lecturers Marie O’Dwyer, Sinead O’Keeffe and Dr Anne-Marie Ivers helped the students develop their concepts via the Integrated Marketing Communications module.
Commenting on the University’s participation, Dr Ivers said: “It is a privilege to participate once again in the National Road Safety Reimagined initiative. It has provided our students with a valuable opportunity to engage with a real societal challenge and develop work that can make a meaningful impact on our roads. This year, students have demonstrated incredible creativity and commitment in producing concepts aimed at influencing their peers. Congratulations to all participants, finalists and winners, especially the winning SETU concept, ‘Speeding Breaks More Than Limits’, and the overall national winner, ‘Dear Brother’.”
The shortlisted SETU posters and the two winning posters are now on display in the School of Business Atrium on the Cork Road Campus.
