ARTISTIC efforts by a Weymouth schoolgirl will help police to drive home messages about road safety. Pupils in Weymouth and Portland were invited to design a poster to highlight road safety messages.

The entry from 10-year-old Charlie, a pupil at Nicholas and St Laurence Primary School, was chosen as the overall winner.

Charlie, whose Be Safe, Be Alive Outside poster will be used by Dorset Police to promote its message, wins a GT Bump bike for her efforts.

The competition was launched in December, 2014 for Year 6 pupils in the borough and 16 schools took part.

Pupils were told their poster had to focus on staying safe when out on their bicycle, scooter or walking.

The entries were first judged by the individual school with the winner of each Year 6 group receiving a set of bike lights. Runners-up received a goody bag.

The top entries were then sent to Dorset Police to be judged by Chief Inspector Debbie Marsden, head of road policing.

Charlie’s entry was chosen for its clear message highlighting the different modes of transport used by children.

Her entry, pictured above, encourages children to: ‘Keep your eyes and ears open’, ‘If there are paths of any kind use them’, ‘Use crossings to cross roads, only cross when the cars have stopped’, ‘Give warnings so you don’t crash’ and ‘Use your brain so you can keep it’.

Chief Inspector Marsden said: “I particularly liked Charlie’s entry because it sends out very clear messages and highlights all the different ways young people use the road.”

Dorset Police’s road policing unit is dedicated towards reducing casualties on the county’s roads and raising people’s awareness of the importance of road safety.

Last year the force announced that a new ‘No Excuse’ team of officers to tackling the five biggest killers on our roads – known as the ‘fatal five’: drink and drug driving, excessive and inappropriate speed, not wearing a seatbelt, driver distractions such as using a hand-held mobile phone and careless driving.