Festival: catch up on week two – and what’s on the agenda for week three?

12.35 | 12 November 2021 |

Festival week three kicks off with a presentation outlining a research project which found the stricter drink drive limit introduced in Scotland in 2014 has had no effect on levels of drink driving and ensuing collisions. 

The four-week Festival of Road Safety (1-26 Nov) is being organised by Road Safety GB and sponsored by Jenoptik. The second week continued to prove popular, with the Festival website now topping 6,000 views since the event got underway.

Among the highlights of the second week were three keynote presentations, the first of which was delivered by Emma Kelly and Steve Callaghan from Road Safety Support.

In the presentation, Emma gives a brief overview of the wide area enforcement strategy that is being used by a number of police forces and road safety partnerships. She explains that collisions have moved away from cluster sites traditionally enforced by fixed site cameras, and are more disparate and occurring across a whole route or whole area, and as such ‘we therefore need to move to a more proactive approach (to enforcement)’.

Steve Callaghan then goes on to talk about ‘making the best use of assets’ (cameras).

He suggests that cameras should be deployed in ‘unannounced, discrete and apparently random locations’, in order to maximise effectiveness because drivers cannot readily predict enforcement, and as a consequence ‘manipulation’ of enforcement by drivers becomes less likely.

The second keynote, delivered by David Crundall, professor of psychology at Nottingham Trent University, looks at the use of virtual reality (VR) in the future of hazard perception testing and training.

Referencing a project to evaluate the efficacy of VR hazard training and testing, David answers whether the hype around VR is justified.

The third keynote, delivered by Elizabeth Box, head of research at the RAC Foundation, asks ‘What could a Road Collision Investigation Branch in the UK achieve?’.  Liz presents the learnings from the DfT and National Highways funded Road Collision Investigation Project.

In total, 12 presentations were published during the second week of the Festival, all of which are available to watch via the Festival website.

Looking ahead to week three
Week three of the Festival gets underway on Monday 15 November (10am) with a keynote presentation from Dr Jonathan James, senior lecturer at the University of Bath.

Dr James’ presentation outlines a research project which evaluated the effect of the stricter limit introduced in Scotland in 2014, and found that the reduction in the limit had no effect on drink driving and road collisions. 

There are also a number of live sessions taking place during week three, for which registration remains open:

Monday 15 November • 12.00 – 13.00
Safe Roads for All (webinar)
Launched in August, the Safe Roads for All coalition is calling on government to publish a Safe and Healthy Mobility Strategy and Action Plan for the UK’s roads. This Agilysis webinar – presented by Dan Campsall with guest speakers Suzy Charman, Nick Reed and Richard Cuerden – will explore the challenges facing policymakers in implementing this ambitious vision for safer, more sustainable and active roads.
More info
Click here to register

Wednesday 17 November • 14.00 – 14.45
Evidential breath tests – a smarter future (presentation)
PACTS is running a competition to encourage companies to develop ‘roadside’ breath-testing equipment. In this presentation, David Davies will give a progress report and explain the way forward for evidential breath tests.
More info
Click here to register

Thursday 18 November • 14.00 – 15.00
GB Road Safety Performance Index Launch (webinar)
This Agilysis webinar marks the launch of the GB Road Safety Performance Index, a new report and accompanying data tool from The Towards Zero Foundation. Examining road safety performance over three decades, the report highlights the cost of inaction over the last decade and how it has resulted in excess deaths and injuries. Presented by Dan Campsall and Tanya Fosdick with guest speakers Jessica Truong and David Davies.
More info
Click here to register

Friday 19 November • 10.00 – 10.30*
Innovating for safer roads in London: Mercedes-Benz Road Safety Dashboard (presentation)
This talk will present the Mercedes-Benz Road Safety Dashboard, which has been developed by Mercedes-Benz Urban Mobility Solutions division together with Transport for London (TfL). This digital tool has the potential to identify higher risk locations prior to an incident taking place.
More info
Click here to register

*This session was originally scheduled to take place on Thursday 18 November, but has been moved to Friday 19 November.

For more information about the Festival contact either Nick Rawlings or Edward Seaman by email or on 01379 650112.

All dates and times are subject to change.


 

Comments

Comment on this story

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close