DOUBLE Olympic gold medallist turned London Road Safety Council president James Cracknell attended the launch of a ground-breaking school CCTV scheme in Hillingdon last week. 

The £1.7million project will see CCTV cameras installed at the entrance of every school in Hillingdon in an effort to keep children safe and stop motorists from parking on the yellow zigzag ‘School Keep Clear’ areas.

The formal launch at Dr Triplett’s CofE Primary School not only gave the school children an opportunity to meet the British athlete himself but saw them take part in scooter safety and pedestrian training from the council’s road safety team.

Cracknell, OBE said: “As adults, we set such a bad example.

“If you walk through London, you will walk into someone who is looking at their phone while walking, and so your kids will get phones and if they’re walking to school looking at the screen, thinking where is the latest Pokémon then they are going to step out in front of a vehicle.

“Education is crucially important because it’s just setting good habits early and that good habit is moving under your own steam and just being aware of other people around you.”

In 2010 Cracknell was hit by a truck while cycling through America causing him to suffer a traumatic brain injury.

The 44-year-old said: “One of the reasons why I decided to work for the road safety council is it’s not just prioritising one group, it pedestrians, cyclists or HGV drivers over others but about devising a plan to make London’s road network as safe as possible.

“The reality is that most drivers are at some point pedestrians, many are cyclists, so you need to think when you’re driving that you don’t forget what it’s like to be a pedestrian or cyclist.

“And when you’re a cyclist, you don’t forget what it’s like to be a driver and have bikes come up from the inside and clip your wing mirror.

“We do have empathy with each other rather than just taking the front foot and being aggressive.

“We’re a medieval city with a limited amount of road space so we’ve got to get on, otherwise it will be carnage.”

With a report from the Department for Transport showing there were 1,730 reported road deaths in Great Britain in 2015, it falls to boroughs and council leaders to try and keep residents safe.

“My target with this is zero fatalities on the roads and the reality is you’re probably never going to achieve that, but if you have that target then you will get closer to it,” Cracknell said.

“The cameras are expensive, but if it saves one life then it’s worth it.”

In addition to being the first council to have invested in the new CCTV system, Hillingdon Council has a dedicated road safety team committed to delivering an extensive programme of road safety campaigns.

Councillor and cabinet member for road safety, Keith Burrows, told the public that the council are always looking towards technology to improve the safety of school children and combat illegal parking outside schools.

He said: “It’s a ground-breaking step forward for any council – we are the first council to do this and we look at it as keeping our children safe.

“The administration's residents come first and for us that’s any age, it’s not just the adult population it is any age, if you’re a resident in Hillingdon, we’ll do what we can to protect you and keep you safe.

“I think it’s important that other boroughs think about this and think about it carefully because they must have the same issues, they’ve got to.

“Yes it requires investment, but at the end of the day you can’t put a price on a life, and so we’re helping these children stay safe and grow up to become adults in this community.

“To have James Cracknell here today to endorse this for us is absolutely fantastic because it actually shows that the highest level within London (The Road Safety Council) actually believe this is a worthwhile project and one that they want to be involved with.”

Before the introduction of the CCTV system, Dr Triplett’s had noticed many problems outside its school.

Headteacher Sue Harratt said: “Parking is always a problem outside schools and it causes a risk to the children primarily of course because there are blind spots behind the drivers.

“The thing to aim for is it becomes a deterrent, not a punishment. If it stops accidents, if it saves a child’s life anywhere, it’s got to be worth it.”

Also speaking at the event, Hillingdon Mayor John Hensley said: “The safety of the children is paramount.

“Parents sometimes have the situation where they take the child out of the driver’s side facing oncoming traffic, and we will prosecute every person who endangers a child. You cannot put a price on an injured child.”

Cracknell, who just over a month ago was covering the Rio Olympics, spoke proudly of Team GB’s sporting success.

The Olympian said: “For my sport, we saw those that should have won win.

“I also thought the women’s hockey team were brilliant. They know they could play and they got on with it, they were relentlessly competitive and looked like they were enjoying it.

“If I was looking for a role model for our youngsters in sport, I would say the hockey team.”