From the First Great Western press release:
A train driver who narrowly missed hitting two young children having a picnic on tracks is taking his safety campaign to Welsh Assembly Members this Tuesday [23 October].
Geraint Llewellyn, who has been a train driver for 11 years, started a schools safety campaign having been shocked into action when he had to break at 90mph after spotting two young boys eating and drinking close to the line at Briton Ferry.
The 33 year-old First Great Western driver was left shaking and came up with the idea for an awareness raising campaign with his manager Ian Rowlands.
Since July, the awareness campaign has visited three schools alongside colleagues from the British Transport Police and school children have been given the chance to visit Swansea Station for an experience day, which includes seeing inside a train driver^s cab.
Geraint said: ^When the near miss happened in May I went back to Swansea and chatted to Ian about it. I felt we had to do something and we came up with an awareness package. Since then we have visited three schools and had them visit Swansea Station for an experience day, but we want to make sure this continues. We hope that this visit to meet Welsh Assembly Members will ensure that we can maintain that momentum.^
Driver Manager Ian Rowlands stated that on average drivers experience one or two near misses a year. ^The safety briefing we gave was interactive and we asked the children to design a safety poster ^ and the winning designs will be displayed at Swansea Station. We hope that in visiting the AMs we can formalise this campaign and ensure it continues to grow.^
The visit to the Welsh Assembly has been organised by AM Byron Davies.
A very valid message - but I suspect Geraint had to
brake at 90mph, rather than break ...
