YRB awards Buckhorn elementary $5,000

Buckhorn elementary school won the Yellowhead Road & Bridge Challenge beating 22 other local schools.

The contest was a first for YRB and representatives were thrilled to present a cheque for $5,000 to the lucky winner.

"The initiative was to bring public awareness to schools and promote road safety," said YRB quality manager, Monte Shipmaker.

"We want motorists to be aware of dangerous driving behaviours that occur around plow trucks and the unsafe behaviours that have escalated recently."

The most common unsafe driving behaviours include: passing on the right while trucks are plowing snow, following too close while sanding and not moving over while approaching a plow truck.

"It needs to start with the kids and teaching them when they are young about road safety, dealing with road conditions and how to make roads safe for the travelling public," said YRB operations manager, Greg Poitras.

"If people give us a little room to work with, it makes the roads safer for them."

In December, Shipmaker visited local schools and was thrilled with all of the support received from principals and staff.

"The contest started in December, just before Christmas, which we thought was a good time, just before holidays when everyone will be travelling," Shipmaker said.

With each and every YRB truck they saw on the roads, students had to report their sightings on the YRB Facebook page.

And Buckhorn school, with 130 students, won with the most sightings reporting 360 entries, doubling that of the second place winner, Pineview elementary school.

"Kids were so excited to look for the YRB trucks and report them," said school principal, Kirk Czechmeister.

Diversified Transportation also took part in the challenge to promote school bus safety.

"We wanted to incorporate their message with ours," Shipmaker said.

The main message being to stop for school buses when the red sign is flashing.

"School bus drivers really wanted to take part and the students were so excited. It was a great idea for YRB and we were just so happy to be a part of it," said Diversified operations manager, Luis Gonzalez.

Buckhorn school is excited to use their winnings in bringing technology to students by purchasing computer tablets for each classroom.

"This was very generous for YRB to do this and big thanks to Nicole Doucette, a Grade 1/2 teacher at the school. She was the key player in motivating the staff, students and the whole community," Czechmeister said.

"It was so neat to see the community pull together and work towards this goal."