SAFE CROSS CODE: Killarney Municipal District wants to revive the legendary 'Safe Cross Code' television advert that was sung by Brendan Grace and promoted by Gay Byrne.

EXCLUSIVE

By Sean Moriarty

A legendary road safety television advert from the 1970s could be revived if a plan by Killarney Municipal District members gets national support.

The Safe Cross Code, a catchy road safety advert and sung by legend Brendan Grace encouraged children and adults alike to engage in safe practices while crossing busy streets.

The ‘Safe Cross Code’ song was used extensively in a campaign fronted by 'Judge', the star of the 1970s childrens' television show ‘Wanderly Wagon’.

A generation of school children grew up on words and messages of the advert and locally elected councillors are calling for it to be revived.

Cllr Donal Grady raised a motion at Wednesday’s special meeting between elected members and executive staff.

Grady said he was concerned that pedestrians in Killarney did not understand rules of the road at uncontrolled crossings where people step out into passing traffic.

At such crossings it is at a driver’s discretion to stop but Grady called for KMD to put up notices at the crossings “informing the public that they do not have the right to just walk across”.

Grady’s motion led a lively debate on the legendary advert with Cllr Niall ‘Botty’ O’Callaghan threatening to sing the words of the song until he was politely advised by colleagues that they did not need to hear him sing!

“It is time to revive it, it is very relevant today,” Cllr O’Callaghan added and asked for the Council to write to the Road Safety Authority (RSA).

Killarney Municipal District Engineer John Ahern agreed with the elected members.

“This is a national issue but Killarney could take the lead,” he told the meeting.

The RSA did re-release the song with the help of Brendan Grace and Gay Byrne a few years ago before both men passed away, but KMD staff believe it is time to do it again.