A student from St Cyres Comprehensive School in Penarth has been hailed as a true example to other teenagers after winning a competition set by Penarth Firefighters about the consequences of road traffic collisions.

Emily Gronow aged 17 excelled in the road safety competition with her hard hitting film based on a poem written about a real life experience of losing a loved one in a road crash. Firefighters from Red Watch at Penarth Fire Station initiated the competition earlier in the year, setting youngsters the challenge of producing a piece of work that reflected the harsh reality of a road traffic collision and delivered a message which would help to reduce future collisions.

The video follows the story of a very sad personal loss during a car crash and Emily used her mum and friends as the main stars of the film. Now, South Wales Fire and Rescue Service will be making the video available to all its fire stations to drive home the message of road safety through the eyes of a teenager.

Station Manager at Penarth, John Davies said

When we saw this video, we instantly knew it would deliver the message to other teenagers and prove useful across the Service. Other Fire Stations can use this to connect with teenagers about road safety. Emily put a huge amount of effort into this project and we appreciate her efforts.

The presentation to Emily Gronow takes place just days before World Rescue Wales 2008 in Cardiff International Arena, which will also launch the first all-Wales Fire and Rescue Service Road Safety Strategy. World Rescue Wales 2008 will see Firefighters from all over the globe competing against one another in a series of rescue challenges. The main event is the World Extrication Challenge where hundreds of firefighters will compete against the clock and under the watchful eyes of World Rescue Organisation judges for their skills, when they remove real casualties from staged ‘crashed cars’.

Firefighters attend thousands of road traffic collisions every year in South Wales, are often first on the scene and are wholly aware of the devastating consequences they can incur. The video produced by Emily will become part of the ongoing campaign to reduce road traffic collisions by making young people aware of the dangers and the simple safety measures they should take.

To make this event even more prestigious Road Safety Manager for the Welsh Assembly Government Meryl James along with Road Safety officers from the Local Authority will be attending to congratulate Emily.