Road Safety offices from Local Authorities across the North West, Midlands and North East of the country have joined forces to launch the very first TikTok Mic Drop Road Safety Competition.
Held in conjunction with iRadio, TikTok Mic Drop is putting the spotlight on all age groups and their capacity to deliver a positive message to their peers and the wider community to communicate the importance of safe road user behaviour to ultimately save lives.
The competition invites participants to create their own song or rap focussing on sharing the road safely and upload this onto TikTok, tagging iRadio and mentioning their Local Authority, for example #Westmeath.
In 2020 we regrettably saw a rise in the number of pedestrians killed on Irish roads, up 19% on 2019. We also saw increases in the number of cyclist and motorcyclist fatalities, up 25% and 6% respectively. This campaign wants to change this trend.
We want to empower people to have conversations with their friends about making safe choices when they are behind the wheel, on foot, or however they use the road. Entrants for the road safety competition are asked to focus on sharing the road with other road users, be they cyclists, drivers, horse riders, motorcyclists or pedestrians.
This innovative challenge is being promoted by 10 local authorities (Kildare, Monaghan, Laois, Longford, Donegal, Cavan, Sligo, Mayo, Leitrim and Westmeath) in partnership with iRadio with a prize fund of €5000. There are individual prizes of €1000 for the 4 best entries and one spot prize of €1000 which will be awarded to the best entry submitted by a school, sports team, club or community group.
While competing for the prize, video-makers will be able to highlight some of the most important road safety issues affecting their area in regards to respect and courtesy on the roads and pinpoint key ways that improvements can be made which is sure to benefit the local community.
All entrants are reminded to adhere to Covid19 guidelines at all times.
Colm Smith, Road Safety Awareness Officer Westmeath County Council, said “We believe that the TikTok Mic Drop video competition will attract participation from students in primary and secondary schools, colleges, universities and even the mature residents of our counties can come on board with the local authorities and iRadio in making road safety a culture. We hope the videos submitted for the contest by entrants will resonate deeply with their peers, send a strong message and play an important role in educating the general public and promoting road safety.”
iRadio CEO Mark Cunning said
“We're delighted to be involved with so many of the County Councils in our region. Over the years we've had to air far too many stories on iRadio about the loss of young lives on our roads.
There's a difference between talking to young people and talking at them, it's great to see such forward thinking from our County Councils and the Local Authority Road Safety Officers.
Our aim is to educate though entertainment and interaction, I'm really looking forward to seeing you, the user, generate content from this initiative.”
The competition will take place on TikTok. Entrants must share their creation on the platform, tag @Thisisiradio, and use their county’s hashtag, for example #Westmeath. TikTok Mic Drop starts on iRadio on March 8th. The closing date is Wednesday 24th March 2021.
Terms and conditions apply. For more information listen to iRadio or see iRadio.ie/micdrop
Content Last Updated/Reviewed: 04/03/2021
