An initiative aimed at promoting road safety among the island’s youth will be brought back next month.

Every high school has been asked to nominate students to sit on the Junior Road Safety Council, which will be tasked with raising awareness directly in schools.

“We will provide them with guidance and the framework but we want them to run it, to own it,” Erica Rance Mill, the chairwoman of the Bermuda Road Safety Council, told The Royal Gazette.

“We really want to give them the opportunity to be a part of the change for the next generation. The youth of today will be the adults of tomorrow. Our goal is to have them as road safety aware as possible.”

Ms Rance Mill said the intention is for the JRSC to come up with ideas and initiatives that will raise awareness of road safety.

She added this could be achieved by the likes of campaigns targeting specific areas, competitions or “any other method that they feel will be conducive to the target audience”.

And while the RSC will assist to ensure they are working towards a common goal and their messages are aligned, much of the administrative work, including how often the council meets, would be left to its young members. A previous JRSC was set up in 2001 but discontinued several years later. It was announced in April that the initiative would be resurrected. According to Ms Rance Mill, it has been well received, with all the high school principals on board.

The RSC hopes one student from every senior school will take part and two where possible.

“The more the merrier,” Ms Rance Mill said. “That’s where we will help with the next generation because safe road use will be at the forefront of their minds.”

Ms Rance-Mill added that a long-term goal would be to have similar programmes in middle and primary schools.