Following the recent Northern Ireland Road Safety Awards for 2022 where RiverRidge sponsored the Emergency Services category, we were delighted to present MaryKate McKevitt from Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue (NIFRS) service with the award.
MaryKate is a Watch Commander in NIFRS and dedicates a lot of her life to road safety. She is not only a first responder to often horrific road crashes, but she also knows first-hand the impact and personal heartache road risks can cause.
MaryKate has been involved in a significant amount of road safety projects in a voluntary capacity in her local area; including young people and older driver projects, hi-vis vest campaigns, speed awareness campaigns, delivering road safety workshops to local community groups or being a guest speaker as someone who has lost a loved one, tragically in an RTC.
Following the traffic loss of her brother John-Paul, an innocent victim of an RTC, in 2014, MaryKate participated in the poignant short documentary, the ‘Paulie Project’ to help educate road users on the dangers of taking risks on the roads. She delivers road safety talks on behalf of the fire service but also does this on a voluntary basis to ensure that the road safety message is shared, especially to high-risk groups at every opportunity.
MaryKate is dedicated to saving lives through her involvement in road safety, she is determined to change attitudes and behaviours with the aim of reducing RTC’s and prevent unnecessary road crashes and fatalities. She is inspirational and is dedicated to her role and her responsibilities as a firefighter, and in our opinion, a very worthy winner of this award.
Stephen Thompson, Group Transport Manager at RiverRidge, presented MaryKate with the award and said, “It’s evident that MaryKate is making a hugely positive difference to road safety throughout the region, both in a personal capacity, and in her role as Watch Commander with NIFRS. We’re delighted to recognise her efforts with this award and look forward to following MaryKate and what she does next.”
The Northern Ireland Road Safety Awards, now in their eighth year, are organised by Road Safe NI in conjunction with NI’s largest accident management company, CRASH Services.
Davy Jackson from Road Safe NI said “We had a fantastic response to the awards again, with a record number of entries. We are delighted to play our part in recognising those who go the extra mile to promote road safety. The winning entries really stood out for their commitment over a long period of time and for delivering innovative projects. There is so much good work going on across our schools, local communities, emergency services and businesses. The award winners are an inspiration to others, and there is no question their efforts are saving lives on the road.”
