“What we haven’t got (in road safety) is consistency up and down the country and this is something that Road Safety GB could lead on.”
That’s the view of Vicky Harvey, vice-chair of Road Safety GB, expressed in a podcast broadcast today (2 Nov) as part of the 2021 Festival of Road Safety.
- Click here to listen to the podcast
Vicky joined the road safety sector in 2009, and says the quality of road safety delivery across the country has improved significantly since then. She feels Road Safety GB has played a pivotal role in this, through the training courses developed and delivered by the Academy.
She also believes the Academy training courses have brought Road Safety GB closer to road safety officers across the UK.
Vicky’s philosophy is underpinned by what she describes at the ‘first golden rule of road safety – do no harm’.
Sadly, she says, there are still some interventions out there that could be doing harm, without the evaluation to say either way.
“Everything needs to be evaluated and if we can’t evaluate it, we shouldn’t do it,” she says.
She describes herself as a ‘great believer in lifelong learning’ when it comes to road safety education, adding that ‘we need to listen to experts and learn from our mistakes’.
Vicky is also a fan of the way public health campaigns are developed and delivered – citing the campaign to encourage people to stop smoking as an example – and says road safety professionals should ‘take all the learning from public health’.
The big opportunity she sees for Road Safety GB – which she hopes to champion when she becomes chair in November 2022 – is to establish more consistency across the country, by standardising the way road safety is delivered.
Her vision is that if anyone wants to deliver an intervention, ‘there would be a national standard for them to follow’.
About Vicky Harvey
Vicky joined Kent County Council’s road safety team in 2009 and is currently team leader. She became vice-chair of Road Safety GB in November 2020, and will take over as chair at the organisation’s AGM in November 2022.
In the podcast Nick Rawlings and Vicky discuss the direction of travel for Road Safety GB, what motivated Vicky to join the Road Safety GB management team, and what she is hoping to achieve in her time in office.
Coming up later today
At 14.00, today (2 Nov) David Gribble, chief executive officer at the Constable Care Foundation in Australia, will deliver a fringe presentation in which he will explain how augmented reality can be deployed as a cost effective and engaging education tool for vulnerable road users.
Looking ahead to tomorrow
Day three opens at 10.00 with a live keynote presentation titled ‘post pandemic road safety’, delivered by Richard Owen, CEO of Agilysis. As this is a live presentation, pre-registration is required – click here for more information and/or to register to attend.
Then, at 14.00, Louise Palomino and Tanya Qadir from the Road Safety Trust will deliver a pre-recorded presentation in which they provide information about the Trust’s grant funding process and showcase some of the completed and ongoing projects it has funded.
- Click here to receive daily alerts throughout the Festival.
The 2021 Festival is being organised by Road Safety GB and sponsored by Jenoptik. For more information contact either Nick Rawlings or Edward Seaman by email or on 01379 650112.
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