Schoolgirls in silent march for road safety

MOTHER, sister, uncle, daughter, brother, father — signs representing the 279 people who died in traffic accidents last year were carried through a west Cork town in a silent march yesterday by hundreds of black-clad convent schoolgirls.

Traffic came to a standstill in Skibbereen and bystanders stared, as the funereal procession of about 450 students and teachers wound its way in silence through the town.

A total of 279 of the teenagers were dressed in black and bearing signs representing each of the casualties of last year’s road carnage. They were followed by a solitary girl dressed in white, carrying a placard with the question “Will I be Next?”