Please see the attached letter, sent to all Principals to help raise awareness of this campaign.
" We are writing to you to ask you to support our national safety campaign which aims to warn young people about the dangers of trespassing in disused or active quarries.
Tragically, over the past few years a number of young people have been killed or seriously injured after entering disused or working quarries and got into difficulty in deep cold lagoons or on the steep rugged quarry faces. With warm weather and the summer holidays approaching, there is concern that children, teenagers and
young adults could be tempted to enter their local quarry.
To help prevent this, the Mineral Products Association NI (MPANI), with the support of the Health and Safety Executive NI (HSENI), are promoting the Mineral Products Association (MPA) national “Stay Safe” campaign to raise awareness amongst younger children, teenagers, parents, teachers and youth workers about the
dangers of entering quarries uninvited.
All too often after the death or serious injury to a young person in a quarry, their friends or parents say that they were not aware of the risks they were exposing themselves, they thought they were engaged in a harmless bit of fun. If the friends who were with them had understood the risks, they might have stopped them. This is why we believe that helping to raise awareness of these hazards will help to save young people’s lives.
We are appealing to you to help us pass on this important message to young people in your care - “STAY SAFE… STAY OUT” - so that they heed this warning that quarries (working or disused) are not fun places and that by trespassing they place both their own and their friends lives at risk.
