The first phase of a new "ground-breaking whole-life road safety strategy" developed by the AA, has launched in partnership with dbda's The Children’s Traffic Club.
The AA's new initiative aims to make every journey safe and provide pre-school children with access to quality road safety education.
With the number of pre-school children killed or seriously injured as pedestrians on the increase, this latest move from the AA and dbda comes as part of an effort to address the fact that 2,272 children were killed or seriously injured on UK roads in 2012.
The AA and The Children’s Traffic Club believe that early years’ education is the key to turning the tide on these statistics. The scheme also engages parents and shows them how to teach their children to stay safe on roads. The AA plans to build on this partnership to provide road safety solutions at every stage of someone’s life.
Edmund King, AA president, said: ‘The Children’s Traffic Club is a great initiative. My three children have all used it and we want to help other parents educate their children in the vital life skill of road safety.
"Road safety education needs to start at a very young age to have the most impact. The materials provided through the scheme help parents and carers engage very young children in road safety in a fun and imaginative way.
"Our aim is to eliminate death from the roads by working with people of all ages to ensure they have the skills to stay safe on the road.’
Bharti Bhikha, managing director at dbda, said: ‘We are delighted that the AA has put their trust in The Children’s Traffic Club. The AA is a brand trusted by millions of people to deliver quality services and products, so the fact that they have partnered with The Children’s Traffic Club to meet their aspirations for safer road use makes a perfect road safety marriage.
"Concentrating initially on pre-school children really does ensure that this vulnerable group knows the road from a young age and we look forward to working with the AA to develop a progressive, lifelong road safety learning experience while at the same time impacting on the casualty numbers in the years ahead."
For more information contact Bill Smith at dbda on 0141 563 8642.
Although I agree with Terry, sometimes we’ve found it’s not as simple as suggested.
Of course when we first started I spoke to almost every Local Authority in the country and attended RSBG regional meetings etc, to gain the view and support of road safety professionals. In fact, the Somerset Road Safety Partnership gave us our first ever funding – and we are forever grateful for that.
However, it’s not about wanting to do your jobs, it’s about complimenting the existing work you already do. For one reason or another sometimes Local Authorities cannot support other organisations and this is why maybe they put together ‘road safety strategies’ on their own.
We’ve recently had a Road Safety Partnership contact us saying they want to be involved with the European Night Without Accidents event we’re running but have no funds at all to help put it on. Or another incident when the fire service cannot support us because the local authority in their area won’t support us.
This is when organisations like ourselves will partner with corporate organisations and do something different from what the local authority are planning to do.
I always contact RSGB or a local authority first and always will do when I’m planning to run and event in their area. Like you said they have years of experience, expertise and knowledge of that area…it just needs to be recognised that sometimes a joint approach will not always work out.
Mike, from award winning http://dontbethatsomeone.co.uk (London)
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It is a role for RSGB and for every local road safety team and local road safety partnership. Every Local Authority already has a Local Transport Plan and within it a local road safety/casualty reduction plan. RSGB as the national representative body has not, so far, drawn up a national Road Safety Strategy in addition to these local plans.
If our members think that we should do this, we will look at what we can do and what such a document would achieve. An item for your next round of regional meetings and the AGM in November, I think?
Honor Byford, Vice Chair, Road Safety GB
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I am not against any efforts to improve road safety but there seems to be more and more national organisations and others putting together “Road Safety Strategies”. Just what do these people think we do within Local Authority Road Safety Teams, sit on our hands? If anyone wants to be involved in road safety then why don’t they speak with people like us who work daily with young people and children but who have the knowledge of local issues and problems? How many more so called road safety agendas are there? Apart from the frustration of other people wanting to do our jobs, what a waste of money with so many agencies doing the same thing. Role for RSGB methinks!
Terry Beale Road Safety Manager Somerset
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