Lincolnshire Police and the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership are using air fresheners to encourage people to ‘take responsibility for safer driving’ as the nights get darker.
The air fresheners, which are available to drivers for free as part of a new campaign, contain the slogan: ‘Belt up. Hang up. Ease up’.
The simple road safety message is designed to encourage drivers to pause for thought before they set off on their journey.
The air fresheners can be collected from the police stations in Boston, Grantham, Skegness, South Park, Gainsborough, Horncastle, Spalding, Stamford and Louth.
Ian Richardson, chief inspector in specialist operations, said: “Road safety starts with the person behind the wheel, and if we can get those driving on our roads to pay attention to these very simple road safety messages, we might find that we have fewer serious or fatal collisions to attend.
“Even careful drivers can be distracted by a call or text, and just a split-second lapse in concentration could result in a crash. The higher the speed, the longer it takes to identify and react to what is happening around you, and crucially, the longer it takes to stop.
“And seatbelts are a pretty simple one; if you are involved in a collision, do you want yourself or your passengers safely strapped in, or smashing into seats in front, the dashboard, or travelling through the nearest window onto the road?
“Our ultimate goal is to make Lincolnshire – and that includes its road network – one of the safest places to live, work and visit, and we hope this campaign will go some way to achieving that.”
The campaign follows a similar initiative earlier this year, which asked drivers in Lincolnshire to display a #SlowDownInLincolnshire bumper sticker on their vehicle.
Data showed that in the two weeks before the campaign, there were 126 speeding offences, which fell to 51 offences during the campaign. Lincolnshire Police also reported a ‘sustained drop’ in the two weeks after.
Steve Batchelor from the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership, said: “We have decided to follow a similar approach to this campaign because we’ve seen that engaging with people directly, and having them participate in the road safety message, works.
“Keeping our road network safe is our main priority as we know that using a mobile phone is still sadly something that happens too often, even though the law is clear that it’s illegal, and people will still speed or not wear their seatbelt without thinking of the consequences.
“We’re hopeful this campaign will be really well engaged with, and we’ll see a difference in the number of collisions as a result.”
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