Soundbites and images from the second session of day two of the 2024 National Road Safety Conference: topical topics.
- Topical topics (09:45 – 11:30)
- Click here to view the agenda
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09:45
Anne-Marie Penny, Senior Road Safety Policy Adviser, National Highways
Anne-Marie Penny has been a road safety professional since 2003. She was involved in a life-threatening motorbike crash in 1995 and her passion to reduce road crash casualties and the physical and mental trauma that results, stems from this experience.
Presentation: The critical role employers play in reducing crashes and casualties: how DfBB is providing support to local road safety partners
Road safety in 1966
- 1966 saw the highest peacetime road death figures in Great Britain.
- Education, training and publicity was uncoordinated and inconsistent
- Crash causation factors were not thoroughly identified
- Collision investigation techniques were not standard practice
- Vehicle condition went unchecked
- Local authorities had little control over the maintenance of their roads
In 1967 the Government published the White Paper, ‘A Fresh Approach’ to address rising casualties.
Road safety improvements in the past 57 years
- Improved legislation
- Seatbelt wearing
- Alcohol and drugs
- Mobile phones
- Road design improvements
- Barrier design
- Road furniture design and siting
- Road surfacing
- Road Safety Audits
- Improvements in collision investigation
- Investigation standards and methods
- Vehicle examination standards
- Vehicle standards
- Crumple zones
- Passive safety
- Safety ratings (Global NCAP, Euro NCAP)
- Tyre improvements
- Driver assistance systems
- Understanding human factors, behaviour change, and road safety publicity
- Sustainable behaviour change models
- Campaign development
- National driver improvement courses
The Driving for Better Business Programme
Vision: A world where those who drive or ride for work do so safely, efficiently, and sustainably
Mission: to improve safety for all those who drive or ride for work by sharing good management practice and demonstrating the significant business benefits
DfBB Programme: What we do
- Free membership: to create the company ‘digital briefcase’, to map progress, and access and share resources
- Gap Analysis: to identify where the improvement focus is needed
- Driving for work policy builder: to create or refresh your driving for work policy – launched in April 2024
- Case Studies: practical examples to reduce road risk
- Employer resources: e.g., policy templates & info on risk areas
- Driver Resources: for employers to share with staff
Road Safety is a shared responsibility:
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- Those who design, build and maintain roads
- Vehicle manufacturers
- Those who manage occupational drivers
- Those who use the roads
The employer is part of the safe system
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- An enabler to:
- Improve management of road risk
- Raise standards of driving behaviour
- Ensure roadworthy vehicles
- An enabler to:
DfBB local road safety partners toolkit
Free access to DfBB engagement resources in print ready format to add local logos:
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- Information leaflets & brochures
- PowerPoint presentations
- ‘Pull up’ & sock banner designs
- Artwork to use on promotional items
Free courses: 2 short self-directed e-learning courses hosted by Co-Pilot
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- To increase knowledge of Occupational Road Risk, the legislation around driving for work, and fit with the safe system. How to influence and improve the management of this risk by engaging with employers
- Walkthrough of the DfBB programme & resources including presentations, downloadable and print ready files for leaflets and brochures, engagement opportunities and approaches
DfBB: the future
Long Term Aspiration: for DfBB to be the centre of excellence hub for the management of occupational road risk.
With our partners, build a strong dialogue with business communities and customers
- Reach over 20 million drivers through their employers
- Continue and extend the essential support for stakeholders, partners, and the DfBB community
10.00
Ean Lewin, Managing Director, D.tec International
Ean Lewin has been a road safety campaigner since 1996, pushing government for the creation of a Zero Tolerance law for illegal drugs while driving. Implemented at the roadside in 2015, the UK will be in its 10th year of roadside drug driver testing and seeing #MoreDrugsThanDrink at the roadside.
Presentation: Practical solutions to the real time achievement of ‘Zero’ targets
Ean is the Managing Director of D.tec International which he founded in 1996. Since, Ean has been fundamental in the creation of the new Road Traffic Act Section 5a ‘above the limit on drugs’, he worked in support of police officers highlighting their struggle to enforce the Road Traffic Act Section 4 ‘impairment’.
Ean is a technical expert on drugs of abuse and has vast experience in the practical and legal implications of implementing and running drug detection systems.
Why is drug driving being effectively ignored?
10 years ago:
Pre the Road Traffic Act 1988 Sec5A amendment
‘Driving Above a Limit on a List of Drugs’ and the permission for Police Officers to use the roadside screener DrugWipe
Police arrested and prosecuted less than 800 Drug Drivers per year
At the same time Germany was prosecuting 34,000! Yet we claim to be one of the safest nations?
Today:
With the use of drug wipe:
Ministry of Justice 2023 results show just 18,500 prosecutions.
A great advance on 800? So why just 18,500 prosecutions?
For 100,000 DrugWipes used at the roadside; police report 60% efficiency, so 60,000 positives; so rounding up to 20,000 prosecutions, gives some 40,000 NOT prosecuted!
Currently, the law only allows prosecution on an evidential blood sample.
The police officer sees bad driving and stops the car.
Uses DrugWipe and arrests the 60% that fail.
It now takes 2-4 hours to get the driver to a Doctor or Nurse, depleting the drug levels all the while.
Then the lab takes 4-6 months to analyse the sample before the police can charge.
So back to the original question.
Why is drug driving being effectively ignored?
Police officers at an incident only know if drugs are involved IF the driver is ‘Up and Walking’
Sec 4 – Field Impairment test
Sec 5A – DrugWipe saliva screen
If the driver is ‘Seriously Injured’ – They are taken to hospital, and a semi successful blood sampling procedure is carried out.
If the driver is sadly ‘Deceased’ – This is then passed to the Coroners
Only look for drugs if police mention possibility – 2/3rds
Conclusion:
Our civil servants need to proactively advise the new Ministers that Drug Driving is a truly serious problem AND one that could be significantly reduced with a tiny change in legislation to allow the option of an immediate evidential roadside saliva sample.
Coroners need to be drug testing all bodies following a road traffic collision, so we get an accurate set of data.
Workplaces across the UK need to be mandated to ensure Drug and Alcohol screening is compulsory for all safety critical employees, especially those driving on our roads.
10:15
Paul Farley, National Law Enforcement Manager, Motor Insurers’ Bureau
Paul Farley joined the MIB enforcement team in 2018, after 30 years’ experience in law enforcement with West Midlands Police. During his time with the force, Paul led teams across several portfolios including Traffic and Air Operations policing in addition to managing the West Midlands Casualty reduction team.
During the latter part of his policing service he performed the role of tactical firearms commander in the Birmingham area.
Presentation: Operation Scalis
Increasing officer demand and plateauing resources with the need to sustain removal of dangerous uninsured vehicles from the road. In 2023, 129,000 vehicles were seized but we need to collectively do more to protect victims.
This is a challenge to policing, who do a great job but to lever more results with finite resources the MIB board supported investment across wide variety of enforcement initiatives including a series of one day deployments to tackle uninsured driving – funded by MIB as part of its £5m investment.
With this principle in place, we started conversations with Superintendent Gareth Mason in WMP who agreed we could put a proof of concept into force, with MIB funding a number of officers dedicated to tackling uninsured driving. That number of officers would be precisely matched by the force, thereby doubling up on our investment and making the operations efficient to run. The pledge was to run approximately 20 operations.
There were challenges along the way with the donation agreement which accounted for the spend and at times this felt onerous, but with the support of West Midlands Police and MIB legal and finance teams we got there – Op Scalis was born.
This has since provided the backdrop for eight additional forces being rolled out throughout this year.
MIB provided West Midlands Police with the top 20 post codes where uninsured driving was hurting the public the most.
Several site locations were trialled, some were more effective than others.
It allowed both the public and local officers to see the efforts that were being made to tackle uninsured drivers and this was well received. The MIB LELO team also attended many operations in support, giving tactical advice and direct access to MID
Whilst it’s hard to set a target the objective was to try and achieve around 9 seizures per deployment – we ended up with an average of just over 10. That’s 10 less potential victims of uninsured driving on each occasion we deployed.
The force agreed to red circle the resources but occasionally stopping uninsured driver would lead to a significant crime matter which took teams off the road. We dealt with this on a local basis where the fact the operation was curtailed that day was simply carried over to an additional operation. This is testament to the support and flexibility offered by West Midlands and MIB’s understanding of how policing operates.
What’s next?
We currently have Essex, West Yorkshire Northumbria and Thames Valley up and running with Operation Scalis and yielding positive results, with the Metropolitan Police and Northamptonshire about to start. It’s testament to frontline operational officers in those respective forces who have made this happen.
We haven’t stopped at simply taking vehicles off the road, but worked with West Midlands police and Derek Roberts Tutelage team to understand of those vehicles taken off the road during Operation Scalis which ones within a month of seizure are now uninsured again. Early indicators on this show around 8 percent according to our databases with further research taking place to see how many are being driven on the road. Honing data in this way allows us to target repeat offenders and with a second no insurance conviction when caught are likely to be disqualified.
Thoughts will turn to the results of all 8 forces as we near the end of 2024 and how sustainable it is for both policing and MIB to maintain this initiative. What we can say is that tackling uninsured driving has become more significantly embedded with these forces and we are certainly grateful for their support.
10:30
Derek Roberts, National Programme Lead – Operation Tutelage, National Roads Policing Operations, Intelligence & Investigation (NRPOII)
With over 38 years’ law enforcement experience, Derek Roberts completed 30 years service with Staffordshire Police in mainly specialist operations, including 10 years as Strategic Development lead for the Central Motorway Policing Group (CMPG).
Presentation: Tutelage: tackling the issue of non-compliant vehicles on the roads
Exists to improve levels of compliant road use
It is currently about increasing the safety, security and and efficiency of the UK road network, through data relating to MOT, insurance and vehicle exercise duty.
In the future, additional datasets may be included
Checks licence plates against databases – and provides compliance checks
If a fault is found, a letter is issued. “We think there might be an issue with your insurance” etc
Target those who are inadvertently breaking the rules – encouraging them to check/resolve the issue.
- Processed 1.64m vehicles since launching.
- 854,884 letters issued
- 665,185 vehicles re-insured
- Overall level of follow-on compliance 78%
Of those who don’t comply, overall vehicle seizure rates from stop checks 89%
Secondary offending levels from stop checks 61%
New three-year strategy launched!
10.45
Stuart Lovatt, chair & Jason Simms, Manager, TyreSafe (both)
In September 2022 Stuart was appointed Chair of TyreSafe, the leading road safety charity dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of correct tyre maintenance to reduce the risk of death and injury on UK’s roads. His appointment supports TyreSafe’s ambition to strengthen its presence in the road safety community and supporting the safe system approach.
Jason Simms has been working for TyreSafe for over nine years and is responsible for the day-to-day operations in his role of TyreSafe Manager.
Presentation: tyres as a causal factor in incidents
Our Vision
Zero harm to road users on the UK’s roads due to tyre-related defects
Our Mission
Empower road users with tyre safety knowledge to reduce incidents relating to defective or illegal tyres
Gaining gravitas and visibility
We have a seat at the tables that influence road safety decision making.
What we do – research & studies
Support and challenge existing research, whilst conducting our own high quality, primary research to qualify our case for action and frame our goals.
Fatal collisions on the SRN:
- 973 fatal collisions (1954 vehicles and 2630 occupants)
- 159 vehicles had a mechanical defect
- 80 of them were deemed to be tyre defects
- 38 instances where tyre defects were the cause:
- – 3.9% of the fatal collisions
Top 3 ‘vehicle’ causation factors:
Defective tyres
Defective brake system
Defective suspension
Case for action
- Over 6 million tyres in the UK have illegal tread each year, which could lead to a fine of up to £2,500 per tyre and 3 penalty points
- Over 2 million MOT failures – 1 million classified ‘dangerous’
- 190 people were killed or seriously injured in incidents related to defective tyres in 2023 – an INCREASE of 29% on 2022 and the highest number of causalities since 2018.
- 51,500 tyre-related incidents on SRN (NH annual average)
Engaging through campaigning expertise:
- In 2023 our campaigns achieved 293 million opportunities to see or hear our message. Via online, print, radio, broadcast, social media and digital marketing.
We hope that you join our campaign. We would love to welcome YOU and your individual organisations our latest strategic partners, it is free to join and once you sign up you will have access to all our resources, campaign toolkits and our data and research.
Together we can continue to make the case for action. We have the facts, the data, the research and the campaign toolkits to support local delivery across your communities. The case for action now is integral to the delivery of a safe system approach.
Please come and talk to Jason and myself on supporting the campaign we are here for the full conference we look forward to discussing with you.
11.00
Nicola Wass, CEO, So-Mo
Nicola Wass is the CEO and Founder of So-Mo Mo. She brings the human perspective to the heart of policy, service, and intervention design.
Presentation: The Unseen Journey: Harnessing Behavioural Science to Boost Seatbelt Use Among South Asian Teenagers
A couple of years ago So-Mo was asked to investigate high casualty rates in east Birmingham – an area with a predominantly SA population.
The hypothesis posed by Birmingham City Council was that the high casualty rates were attributable to a local culture of car racing. What would have happened had we gone straight to address this without first verifying that car racing was indeed the true cause – it would not have solved the problem.
Young men driving high-performance cars were both visible and annoying – but the actual number of casualties attributable to them was very small. In other words – the data did not support the hypothesis – addressing this problem would have made no difference to casualty figures.
The real reason this area had higher deaths and injuries was explained by a very large number of passenger casualties – which peaked between the ages of 16 to 24, which suggested A NEW HYPOTHESIS.
High casualty figures were due to higher than average number of people in this location were not wearing seat belts. An observational study of 507 vehicles confirmed to be correct – the data supported the hypothesis.
So now we have a validated hypothesis, it’s worth investing in those more intensive deep dive activities to determine cause (the why): find the why and everything else falls into place
A review of prior campaigns revealed that low wearing rates were in part due to an absence of cultural tailoring in these campaigns, which had used emotional content to drive motivation; however, they had almost exclusively featured white British actors.
Why should this matter? Well, there’s nothing wrong with emotional content and messaging – emotion is a powerful influence on our choices and behaviour. BUT If the person viewing the campaign doesn’t see themselves reflected in WHAT THEY ARE VIEWING, they cannot empathise in the same way as someone who does see themselves reflected. Empathy is required to activate emotion.
So we dug deeper still through an ethnographic study involving over 30 SA young people. These 16-24 year olds PERCEIVED risk to life from of not wearing a seatbelt to be very low. Risk perceptions are a critical determinant of choice and behaviour – it was hard for these young people to make the association between non wearing and death…
So we surmised that a campaign that drew a direct corellation between not wearing a seatbelt and death was likely to FAIL. We needed to associate non wearing with the loss of more immediate tangible goals and achievements, things that would elicit strong emotions at the thought of losing.
We also tested a range of behavioural levers in randomized trial with over 400 young people, which demonstrated that these behaviourally optimised messages and cues had a positive effect on the attitude to seatbelt wearing.
Now we were confident that the approach we’d chosen was the right one. But this was confirmed by a randomized trial involving over 400 young people of which 50% identified as south Asian.
Not only did the trial reveal that the culturally tailored campaigns performed better than the national and regional campaigns we’d tested them against, but the level of emotion experience by south Asian respondents when viewing one of the tailored campaigns was 3 times greater than the level of emotion experienced by non south Asian young people.
So we had out ‘remedy’ but how to administer it?
The initial trials we had conducted to test messaging used static imagery BUT –when was the last time you saw a young person engaging with a poster? …. Mine don’t, do yours? No, they get their news and information from social media. So that was where we had to be.
I said earlier that a picture speaks a thousand words. But a video can pull a million heart strings, and short form video is the preferred medium on the social platforms our young people engaged with .
We measure the results using a combination of social media analytics and a targeted survey also promoted across social media.
The results speak for themselves
The targeting strategy worked: 72.5% of available population across the West Midlands were reached (470,697 young people)
We didn’t just reach a large audience; we reached those who needed it most. Half of viewers surveyed admitted to regularly neglecting seatbelt use.
Of these:
82% of non-wearers reported increased seatbelt use after watching the campaign.
So, when we look at the Fasten up your Future campaign, it’s impressive that most young people can remember the message and story 4 to 8 weeks later. Behaviour change requires viewers to retain key messages and remain motivated long after viewing.
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