Initiative details
A staggering 1 in 4 road deaths in Ireland in 2023 and 2024 involved young people aged between 16 and 25 years old (RSA, 2023 & 2024). This initiative works with young people to raise their awareness and their understanding of road safety, whilst providing these students with the opportunity to use their own voices to communicate to their peers through reimagining of road safety marketing campaigns.
This initiative works with young people at a crucial stage in their lives- as they become eligible to drive. In 2025, this initiative engaged over 1000 young people, who were early stage, new or learner drivers. This initiative acknowledges that this cohort of young people are most vulnerable on our roads and are not as receptive to the standard marketing around road safety to date.
In an attempt to reduce this disconnect, we are working with 18 to 25 year old students to use their own experience of road safety, and their marketing skills to relate best to their peers through highly curated, highly targeted marketing campaigns.
This initiative works with young people at a crucial stage in their lives- as they become eligible to drive. In 2025, this initiative engaged over 1000 young people, who were early stage, new or learner drivers. This initiative acknowledges that this cohort of young people are most vulnerable on our roads and are not as receptive to the standard marketing around road safety to date.
In an attempt to reduce this disconnect, we are working with 18 to 25 year old students to use their own experience of road safety, and their marketing skills to relate best to their peers through highly curated, highly targeted marketing campaigns.
Initiative date
Who was/is your target audience?
Policy makers
Public authorities
Young adults 17-25
Adults
Parents
Seniors
Company employees
Fleet operators
Car drivers
Car drivers – professional
Educational staff
Emergency services
Public transport
Van drivers
Lorry/truck drivers
Cyclists
Micromobility riders
Powered two wheeler riders (excluding micromobility)
Pedestrians
Others
Topic
Create awareness
Education in school or in community organizations
Knowledge building and sharing
Provide alternative solutions
Organisation details
An Garda Siochana and The University of Limerick
Association
Ireland
National
Contact name
Tony Miniter
Telephone number
00353871451715
thomas.a.miniter@garda.ie
Project activities
If you work together with external partners, list the most important partners and briefly describe their role.
This project is led by two partners- Dr Christina O'Connor, Associate Professor in Marketing at the University of Limerick and Sgt. Tony Miniter of Limerick Road Policing Division at An Garda Siochana. These two stakeholders decide the direction of the project, the project requirements, the project brief and the delivery of the annual showcase event and award ceremony.
Over the years, we have engaged with collaborating Universities -
Maynooth University, University College Cork, South East Technological University, University of Galway and the University of Limerick. These universities are led by key academic staff who engage with the project founders and leads, Dr Christina O'Connor and Sgt. Tony Miniter. These universities are supported with project briefs, ideation, external expertise from An Garda Siochana on a year long basis. Excellent working relationships have been created and all partnering universities continue to engage with the project each year.
We have received funding support from Limerick City and County Council and in recent years from ESB- National Electricity provider in Ireland. These bodies are supportive of this life saving cause and attend the annual national showcase event and award ceremony each year.
Over the years, we have engaged with collaborating Universities -
Maynooth University, University College Cork, South East Technological University, University of Galway and the University of Limerick. These universities are led by key academic staff who engage with the project founders and leads, Dr Christina O'Connor and Sgt. Tony Miniter. These universities are supported with project briefs, ideation, external expertise from An Garda Siochana on a year long basis. Excellent working relationships have been created and all partnering universities continue to engage with the project each year.
We have received funding support from Limerick City and County Council and in recent years from ESB- National Electricity provider in Ireland. These bodies are supportive of this life saving cause and attend the annual national showcase event and award ceremony each year.
Please describe the project activities you carried/are carrying out and the time period over which these were implemented.
This initiative is three years old and began in 2023/24 working with 600 18-25 year olds in the founding University of Limerick – headed by Associate Professor Christina O’Connor, to over 1000 students at undergraduate and postgraduate level from five participating Irish Universities in it’s third year (Maynooth University, University College Cork, University of Galway, South-East Technological University and the University of Limerick).
This initiative involved an intensive semester long (typically 10-12 week course) in which they are introduced to the Road Safety Brief by Sgt. Tony Miniter. This brief has evolved over the three years of the initiative to reflect what are growing concerns on the roads from drug driving, distracted driving to speeding. The students work in teams within their module (Marketing, Consumer Behaviour, Integrated Marketing Communications or other module) to address a real-world problem through their learning experience.
Students will produce a written portfolio which documents their own journey on road safety, reflecting on their own experience and using this insight to develop pitch ideas to be communicated via a marketing campaign to the public via a showcase poster. We host an annual showcase and award ceremony to display the work by students.
This initiative involved an intensive semester long (typically 10-12 week course) in which they are introduced to the Road Safety Brief by Sgt. Tony Miniter. This brief has evolved over the three years of the initiative to reflect what are growing concerns on the roads from drug driving, distracted driving to speeding. The students work in teams within their module (Marketing, Consumer Behaviour, Integrated Marketing Communications or other module) to address a real-world problem through their learning experience.
Students will produce a written portfolio which documents their own journey on road safety, reflecting on their own experience and using this insight to develop pitch ideas to be communicated via a marketing campaign to the public via a showcase poster. We host an annual showcase and award ceremony to display the work by students.
In terms of implementation, what worked well and what challenges did you need to overcome?
The collaboration between Universities, An Garda Siochana and Industry has worked extremely well for the betterment of society and fulfills sustainable development goals of Quality Education, Working Partnerships and Collaboration and Better Society and Communities.
Much time and focus was required on build a robust project brief that would address the requirements of education and society as proposed by the key collaborators, the Universities and An Garda Siochana. This brief is continually reviewed on an annual basis and feedback is sought from all participating universities, lecturers and students in relation to sharpening the brief and ensuring the best impact is possible.
Funding was required to facilitate the Annual Showcase Event and Award Ceremony. Sgt Tony Miniter from An Garda Siochana and Dr Christina O’Connor secured funding for 7,000 euro in year 1 from the Local Council in the Limerick City and County Region (2022-23) to deliver this event. In 2023-24, significant funding was secured from sponsors ESB (National Energy Provider in Ireland) for 45,000 euro to deliver this project for a three year period. This secured the roll out of the annual award ceremony and facilitated the increase in participating universities from one University in year 1 to five Universities in year 3.
Much time and focus was required on build a robust project brief that would address the requirements of education and society as proposed by the key collaborators, the Universities and An Garda Siochana. This brief is continually reviewed on an annual basis and feedback is sought from all participating universities, lecturers and students in relation to sharpening the brief and ensuring the best impact is possible.
Funding was required to facilitate the Annual Showcase Event and Award Ceremony. Sgt Tony Miniter from An Garda Siochana and Dr Christina O’Connor secured funding for 7,000 euro in year 1 from the Local Council in the Limerick City and County Region (2022-23) to deliver this event. In 2023-24, significant funding was secured from sponsors ESB (National Energy Provider in Ireland) for 45,000 euro to deliver this project for a three year period. This secured the roll out of the annual award ceremony and facilitated the increase in participating universities from one University in year 1 to five Universities in year 3.
Evaluation
Please summarise how you have evaluated the initiative’s impact (e.g. social media reach, survey, feedback forms, statistics).
To date this initiative has worked with 2500, 18-25 year old students (drivers, learner drivers and pedestrians) from five Universities, over a three year period.
We have secured phenomenal media coverage at a local, regional and national level in 2025 with the highest number of media placements secured due to the high impact of this initiative.
We secured via mainstream TV (RTE- Ireland's National Broadcaster), Virgin Media and TG4 (Irish Speaking channel), along with boardsheet newspaper coverage - off line and online which includes the following in 2025:
RTÉ News
Irish Independent (Limerick)
Limerick Leader
Irish Mirror
Irish Daily Star
HGVIreland.com
Limerick Voice
Irish Independent (Cork)
Waterford News & Star
Clare Champion
The Clare Herald
ILoveLimerick.ie
Limerick Post
Kilkenny People
Limerick Leader L2 Supplement
We have extensive coverage on social media on the following platforms:
Blueksy
Facebook
LinkedIn
Video
Instagram
Facebook
For example, the instagram post released by An Garda Siochana to raise awareness of the Bank Holiday weekend Safe Roads used the winning posters from the University students titled 'Death Calling- Pick Up?' and 'Your Worst Passenger- Your Phone?' to over 240,000 followers.
The winning students from the showcase event were received major attention from radio, with capture on all of the following stations across the island of Ireland:
Limerick Today on Live 95FM
Spin South West
Clare FM
C103FM (Cork)
Cork 96FM
Red FM (Cork)
WLR FM (Waterford)
Galway Bay FM
East Coast Radio (Wicklow)
KCLR 96FM (Carlow & Kilkenny)
Highland Radio (Donegal)
LMFM (Louth)
Northern Sound (Cavan & Monaghan)
Ocean FM (Donegal, Leitrim & Sligo)
Shannonside (Longford, Leitrim & Roscommon)
Radio Nova (Dublin)
Sunshine FM (Dublin)
98 FM (Dublin)
Feedback at project level is sought from all participating universities, through interviews with academic colleagues and students on how the project run, improvements and new additions.
We have secured phenomenal media coverage at a local, regional and national level in 2025 with the highest number of media placements secured due to the high impact of this initiative.
We secured via mainstream TV (RTE- Ireland's National Broadcaster), Virgin Media and TG4 (Irish Speaking channel), along with boardsheet newspaper coverage - off line and online which includes the following in 2025:
RTÉ News
Irish Independent (Limerick)
Limerick Leader
Irish Mirror
Irish Daily Star
HGVIreland.com
Limerick Voice
Irish Independent (Cork)
Waterford News & Star
Clare Champion
The Clare Herald
ILoveLimerick.ie
Limerick Post
Kilkenny People
Limerick Leader L2 Supplement
We have extensive coverage on social media on the following platforms:
Blueksy
Video
For example, the instagram post released by An Garda Siochana to raise awareness of the Bank Holiday weekend Safe Roads used the winning posters from the University students titled 'Death Calling- Pick Up?' and 'Your Worst Passenger- Your Phone?' to over 240,000 followers.
The winning students from the showcase event were received major attention from radio, with capture on all of the following stations across the island of Ireland:
Limerick Today on Live 95FM
Spin South West
Clare FM
C103FM (Cork)
Cork 96FM
Red FM (Cork)
WLR FM (Waterford)
Galway Bay FM
East Coast Radio (Wicklow)
KCLR 96FM (Carlow & Kilkenny)
Highland Radio (Donegal)
LMFM (Louth)
Northern Sound (Cavan & Monaghan)
Ocean FM (Donegal, Leitrim & Sligo)
Shannonside (Longford, Leitrim & Roscommon)
Radio Nova (Dublin)
Sunshine FM (Dublin)
98 FM (Dublin)
Feedback at project level is sought from all participating universities, through interviews with academic colleagues and students on how the project run, improvements and new additions.
What has been the effect of the activities?
As this initiative has been running for three years, we have been able to longitudinally measure the effect of the initiative on all stakeholders and the public as a whole.
In terms of our students, we have worked with over 2,500 students (which is equal to 2,500 drivers and / or learner drivers) and we have gathered individual reflections from all of these students on how they engaged with this initiative and what impact it had on them personally, their driving practice and their wider family circle as they shared their work with their families.
An Garda Siochana have supported this projected from its inception and in 2025 Garda Commissioner Drew Harris was present to meet and congratulate all students with their engagement on this project. The media coverage captured from the 2025 Showcase event and Award ceremony was circulated to 100,000's of people through tv, radio and social media, and will continue to be publicized as the student's work is used by An Garda Siochana for on- going road safety campaigns throughout the year.
All of the supporting five Universities have embedded this Road Safety Initiative into their programme curriculum, with research and theory being used to address this on going challenge and designing creative and authentic assessment practice in which students within their classroom are working on solving real world issues and making real world impact in the name of road safety.
In terms of our students, we have worked with over 2,500 students (which is equal to 2,500 drivers and / or learner drivers) and we have gathered individual reflections from all of these students on how they engaged with this initiative and what impact it had on them personally, their driving practice and their wider family circle as they shared their work with their families.
An Garda Siochana have supported this projected from its inception and in 2025 Garda Commissioner Drew Harris was present to meet and congratulate all students with their engagement on this project. The media coverage captured from the 2025 Showcase event and Award ceremony was circulated to 100,000's of people through tv, radio and social media, and will continue to be publicized as the student's work is used by An Garda Siochana for on- going road safety campaigns throughout the year.
All of the supporting five Universities have embedded this Road Safety Initiative into their programme curriculum, with research and theory being used to address this on going challenge and designing creative and authentic assessment practice in which students within their classroom are working on solving real world issues and making real world impact in the name of road safety.
Please briefly explain why your initiative is a good example of improving road safety.
This is a very novel and leading initiative which combines the expertise, skills and leadership from the University sector and the Policing sector with the national police service of Ireland (An Garda Siochana). This strong collaboration has paved the way for the successful development and scaling of students nationally to work on a shared vision- to make our roads safe.
This initiative combines education and practice together in a robust, structured and progressive format which encourages and empowers young people to use this initiative as a platform to communicate and 'speak to' their peers to instil the message of road safety.
This initiative is aiming over the next 3 -5 years to target every university across the island of Ireland to engage in this road safety for their young people. This is feasible due to a strong template (blue print) for implementation, clear brief and structured process created by Dr Christina O'Connor and Sgt. Tony Miniter- which has been enhanced over the first three years of roll out. This initiative is transferable across universities and countries, with the strong working relationship primarily between the university sector and the national police force in the respective country.
This initiative combines education and practice together in a robust, structured and progressive format which encourages and empowers young people to use this initiative as a platform to communicate and 'speak to' their peers to instil the message of road safety.
This initiative is aiming over the next 3 -5 years to target every university across the island of Ireland to engage in this road safety for their young people. This is feasible due to a strong template (blue print) for implementation, clear brief and structured process created by Dr Christina O'Connor and Sgt. Tony Miniter- which has been enhanced over the first three years of roll out. This initiative is transferable across universities and countries, with the strong working relationship primarily between the university sector and the national police force in the respective country.
How have you shared information about your project and its results?
The initiative was captured in photos, audio and video format on the day of the annual showcase event and awards.
In addition to the excellent local, regional and national media coverage across our national broadcaster (RTE), social media, newspapers and radio stations, this project is also being shared and disseminated through academic forums. This includes national and international conferences - Academy of Marketing UK, American Marketing Association and the Irish Academy of Management.
All supporting Universities have shared the work of their students across their institutions and in the case of South East Technological University, they were successfully awarded An Garda Siochana Youth Awards for the Waterford region for their work on the Road Safety Reimagined.
This work has also been shared at government level with Minister for Justice - Niall Collins TD attending the Annual Showcase event in 2025.
This work has been shared at an international level at a major exhibition on April, 15th 2024, at the Road Safety - Stronger Together Event with WHO & European Delegates from the Turkish Police. In attendance was Dr Jonathan Passmore, Manager at the World Health Organisation, and Assistant Commissioner Paula Hillman, Roads Policing & Community Engagement, An Garda Siochana present along with Policing Inspectors and Sergeants from An Garda Siochana across the Island of Ireland.
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In addition to the excellent local, regional and national media coverage across our national broadcaster (RTE), social media, newspapers and radio stations, this project is also being shared and disseminated through academic forums. This includes national and international conferences - Academy of Marketing UK, American Marketing Association and the Irish Academy of Management.
All supporting Universities have shared the work of their students across their institutions and in the case of South East Technological University, they were successfully awarded An Garda Siochana Youth Awards for the Waterford region for their work on the Road Safety Reimagined.
This work has also been shared at government level with Minister for Justice - Niall Collins TD attending the Annual Showcase event in 2025.
This work has been shared at an international level at a major exhibition on April, 15th 2024, at the Road Safety - Stronger Together Event with WHO & European Delegates from the Turkish Police. In attendance was Dr Jonathan Passmore, Manager at the World Health Organisation, and Assistant Commissioner Paula Hillman, Roads Policing & Community Engagement, An Garda Siochana present along with Policing Inspectors and Sergeants from An Garda Siochana across the Island of Ireland.
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Supporting materials
