In his presentation at National Conference, chief fire officer Dave Etheridge has described the ‘powerful partnership’ that can be achieved by Road Safety GB working with fire & rescue services.
He explained to delegates that in September 2013 the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) launched a three year Road Safety Strategy after several months of discussion and invaluable input from Road Safety GB.
The Strategy is supported by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between CFOA and Road Safety GB which sets out how the two partners will work together both national, regionally and locally.
He acknowledged that in the past fire and rescue services have been ‘pretty clumsy’ in the way they have gone about engaging with road safety officers, and made it clear that he and his colleagues recognise road safety officers as the “professional side” of road safety delivery.
He said that he passionately believes that “working together can make a difference” through, for example, joint campaigning, data sharing and developing an events calendar for all road safety stakeholders.
He also suggested that fire and rescue services can successfully engage with young people and that in his experience road safety officers seem to want the fire and rescue service to help with this group of road users.
His closing message to delegates was: “You are the professionals, but why not use your local fire and rescue service to deliver road safety on the ground locally?"
Visit the conference facebook page to see more photos of the event.
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