Back to School for Knights of Old

Knights of Old Group is pleased to announce the success of its first school visit as part of the company’s road safety campaign in association with professional cycling team, Metaltek-SCOTT.

The transport and distribution specialist announced its plans to raise awareness of road safety for cyclists and other road users back in January. This has caught the eye of the transport industry and cycling professionals.

Knights of Old sees the importance of education and understanding from both cyclists and drivers as crucial and hopes that by holding workshops with local schools, its staff and drivers, accidents can be reduced.

Representatives from Knights of Old and three riders from the team spoke to all the children of King John School, Thrapston of the importance of wearing a helmet and reflective equipment, the scale of a truck, the limitations of the driver’s view out of the cab and how important it is look and listen.

The assembly was interactive with demonstrations by the team and also the opportunity to sit inside an articulated truck to see what the driver can or cannot see.

Tony Gibb, Team Captain said: “We are so pleased with how the day went. The kids were really responsive to what we had to say. We tried to make it a little bit fun, but made sure we got the safety message across.”

Ian Beattie, Knights of Old Managing Director added: “We recognise that we play a large part in educating our staff and our local community about safety on the roads. There is a lot in the media at the moment about accidents involving cyclists and trucks and we are doing what we can to reduce them.”

This workshop was the first of many with other schools also showing an interest. The school visits are running alongside the internal workshops that the company is holding for its staff regarding the same safety messages plus themes such as fitness, health, nutrition and the promotion of cycling as a great sport in which to be involved.

Beattie concludes: “We are not trying to put people off from cycling, or even trucks for that matter, quite the opposite. We just want people to understand the potential dangers so that cycling can be enjoyed and driver restrictions are understood.”