A young driver intervention delivered by Agilysis on behalf of Safer Roads Berkshire has been named winner of the 2018 John Smart Road Safety Award.
Presented by the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT), the John Smart Road Safety Award is in recognition of the CIHT’s former director of technical affairs, who passed away suddenly in 2012.
The 2018 winner, which was announced at CIHT’s annual Awards’ ceremony in London on 14 June, is DriveStart – which fought off competition from the other shortlisted entries from Atkins, Scotland TranServ and Transport for London.
Launched in 2011, DriveStart is a long-term young driver programme which centres around a series of education days. The initiative is a partnership between public sector road safety professionals and private organisations.
Rather than deliver a broad, fear-based education and awareness message to large audiences, the workshops are for 30 young people, who often work in smaller groups.
Games and demonstrations are used to employ a variety of behavioural change techniques including action planning, social comparison, problem solving and behavioural practice.
The course evaluation has shown that participants appreciate interactivity, especially where this is reinforcing positive behaviour, showing them how to engage in correct actions and providing coping mechanisms for challenging situations.
The judges said: “What was particularly refreshing about this entry was that it was evidence-based in respect of behavioural change techniques. This entry clearly demonstrated what interventions did work, whilst recognising areas where the evidence was insufficient to show measurable benefits.
“The programme appeared to work well with young people, and applied group dynamics and intelligence to improve safety outcomes for this group. The range of metrics used to measure success, and the recording of evidence of change, as well as the statistical significance of that change, is unusual and particularly welcome.”
DriveStart also won a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award in 2017, and earlier this year was named ‘Best Partnership Scheme’ at the 2018 FirstCar Young Driver Road Safety Awards.
Wow, is that the first time an education scheme has won the award? Just goes to show that proper education and training can save lives.
Simon Jones
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