Kent County Council, The Honest Truth Partnership and a partnership comprising Central Bedfordshire Council, Luton Borough Council and Amey were the Gold Award winners at the inaugural FirstCar Young Driver Road Safety Awards ceremony in London yesterday (15 April).
23 organisations were in contention to pick up an award at the ceremony which was held at the Young Driver Focus 2015 event at the RAC Club in Pall Mall.
FirstCar launched this new awards scheme, which was sponsored by ingenie, to recognise the work of road safety professionals in seeking to reduce casualties among young drivers. More than 50 entries were received across the three award categories.
The Education and Training Initiative Award – which recognises standout education programmes and training schemes that successfully engage learner and newly qualified drivers in improving their attitude and skills – went to a partnership comprising Central Bedfordshire Council, Luton Borough Council and Amey for the ‘MORE’ (Motivation, Observation, Reaction, Education) scheme, a pre and post young driver three-stage education package focusing on collision avoidance.
The silver award in the category went to the Engage North West Partnership, while the bronze award went to Lancashire County Council for its Wasted Lives initiative.
The Partnership Scheme of the Year Award recognises outstanding examples of engagement from either within the public sector, or through reaching out to the private sector, to improve young driver road safety. More than the initiative itself, the judges looked at how the partnership worked to leverage the key strengths of each partner.
The gold award went to The Honest Truth Partnership, a multi agency partnership set up with £750 seed funding which is now growing nationally and internationally due to its unique and innovative approach.
The silver award went to Surrey Fire and Rescue for Safe Drive Stay Alive which has just celebrated its 10th year and passed the milestone of 100,000 attendees, while the ‘bronze’ award went to GoSafe for the Deadly Mates campaign.
The Young Driver Campaign of the Year Award went to Kent County Council for its Speak Up campaign which enables young people to have a say in their safety when travelling as passengers, thereby influencing the behaviour of young drivers.
The silver award went to Blazed and Wasted by Road Safety Analysis, which utilises behavioural science to target young adults and deliver measurable results, while The Honest Truth Partnership picked up the bronze award.
James Evans, FirstCar founder, said: “The number of entries exceeded all our expectation and underlines how much hard work is going on across the country.
“A special thanks to everyone who took the time and effort to enter, and many congratulations to those who made the shortlist and, of course, to the eventual winners – the competition really was very fierce.
“We are delighted that these inaugural awards have been so well supported and will be announcing our plans for 2016 in the coming months.”
A very informative and stimulating event. Thank you very much!
Leanne Melvill, Hertfordshire
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Fantastic event, and well done to all of the award winners.
Deana Frost Hertfordshire
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More evidence of some of the fantastic work being undertaken by road safety teams across the country despite having to operate in a very challenging fiscal environment.
Co-operation, team working, partnerships between the public and private sector, and innovation – it’s all there. I am sure that everyone involved has a passionate belief in road safety and the need to deliver initiatives with positive outcomes for the benefit of all road users. With budgets being cut and resources being spread thinner and thinner we should all be very proud of these wonderful people and their colleagues working in road safety across the country who achieve so much with what little resources they have left.
Mark – Wiltshire
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Before many of the negative critics get on this feed to have their long drawn out say I would like to say a very hearty well done to all the winners, your work is worthwhile and you all should be very proud.
Tina H
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