The Road Safety Council has praised Berkeley Institute for its pro-active approach in trying to reduce the number of road accidents among students this year.

The school is urging any students, parents or guardians of children at the school - who are likely to be riding auxiliary cycles from next month - to attend its third and last meeting on road safety on the premises tonight.

The Road Safety Council is set to be there to raise awareness about the risks young people take when they start riding bikes, and to ensure they are aware of good road practise.

At the meeting, they will also be given registration stickers to be put on their bikes, which will show that either the parent or student has attended the meeting and that the child has permission to park their machine on the premises.

Any parents or students who have failed to attend either one of the three meetings will not be registered, and therefore will not be eligible to leave their bikes at school.

Chairman of the Road Safety Council Dr. Joseph Froncioni said he was delighted Berkeley Institute was taking the pro-active measures, and said he hoped other schools would soon follow suit.

He said young people aged 16 and 17, who are riding bikes for the first time, are the group most at risk of road accidents, and he said parents had a responsibility to ensure they and their children were fully aware of the dangers.

He said: "The school is requiring that all students who want to park their motorbikes on the school campus have a registration sticker on the bike when it is parked there.

"To get that sticker, parents or students have to attend one of the road safety meetings that I give there. No bike will be allowed to park on the campus without a sticker.

"However, the registration can be removed if the child is known to be a bad driver, or has a number of driving offences against them."

Dr. Froncioni said this was exactly the kind of pro-active stance he wanted schools to take, to help reduce the number of student road accidents.

And he said the problem in the past had been that some parents took little responsibility in the way their youngsters rode around the Island, and whether or not they posed a risk to themselves or to others.

The chairman of the council added: "This is a tremendous pro-active move by Berkeley. It is the first school on the Island doing something like this.

"The Road Safety Council gives the school its full backing, and we hope other schools follow.

"Parents have a tendency to put their heads in the sand when it comes to things like this, so this meeting is to raise their awareness."

Principal of the school Michelle Gabisi said two other, similar meetings, were held at the school. The first one in May was quite well attended, but the second meeting, in July, had a poor turn out.

Mrs. Gabisi said she hoped tonight's meeting would have good support.

Mr. Froncioni said a high percentage of first time bike owners were involved in accidents, and Mrs. Gabisi estimated that every fortnight she received a call from a member of the public saying that one of her pupils had been involved in a collision.

"These meetings were organised purely out of concern for our students riding bikes," said Mrs. Gabisi. "Berkeley has lost several students on the roads over the last six or seven years, not all presently students, some were previous students.

"There seems to be a lot of unsafe riding practises acquired by students, such as not fastening helmets, wearing them above head bands, overtaking on the inside, travelling at fast speed and riding too close to the person in front.

"Dr. Froncioni talks to the students and parents quite frankly, and basically asks them to apply common sense.

"We simply want to discourage senseless riding practises on the road."

Even parents or students at Berkeley who believe they, or their children, just may be on the road on auxiliary bikes within the next year should attend the meeting.

It will start tonight at 5.30 in the Berkeley Institute School library.