A number of initiatives and organisations have been recognised with a Prince Michael Award for their work to improve the safety of road users.
The Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards recognise outstanding achievement and innovation worldwide with the most outstanding examples of international road safety initiatives given public recognition through the scheme.
Award winners are invited to meet Prince Michael an annual luncheon at the Savoy in London, which took place earlier this week (13 Dec).
The following organisations/initiatives received the award in the ‘Safer Road Users’ category.
- Derbyshire Road Safety Partnership – Young Driver Education Programme
- DriverMetrics – Driver Risk Index
- eDriving – Driver Safety Programmes: Virtual Risk Manager
- Freight Transport Association – Van Excellence Scheme
- National Express – Driving Out Harm road safety project
- Northumbria Police – Operation Dragoon
- Road Safety GB – The Academy (pictured above)
- Transport for London – Safe Streets for London: Making cycling, walking and motorcycling safer in London
Derby and Derbyshire Road Safety Partnership (DDRSP) – Young Driver Education Programme
The DDRSP is a partnership between Derbyshire County Council, Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service and Derbyshire Constabulary.
DDRSP’s Young Driver Education Programme is aimed at increasing the safety of drivers aged 16-20-years by positively affecting their driving behaviour.
The programme started in 2007 and involves delivering workshops through schools. On average 1,600 students take part from 36 out of Derbyshire’s 45 secondary schools and colleges, with a record 2,350 students involved in 2015.
Issues covered in the workshops include speed, drink and drug driving, aggressive driving and distractions. Emergency services personnel also talk about the after-effects of dealing with collisions.
Research shows that in Derbyshire in 2007, before the initiative began, there were 635 reported injuries and 10 deaths among young drivers. By 2014 this had fallen to 331 injuries and one death.
Click here to find out more.
DriverMetrics – Driver Risk Index
Founded at Cranfield University by Dr Lisa Dorn, DriverMetrics pioneered the behavioural safety approach with the use of the Driver Risk Index, a psychometric measure of driver behaviour.
The Driver Risk Index has more than 30 years of research and 75 peer-reviewed academic papers published to support its reliability and validity, making it the ‘world’s most evidence-based and globally benchmarked, driver risk assessment’.
The aim of DriverMetrics is to improve driver behaviour among private, public service and commercial fleet drivers.
Click here to find out more.
eDriving – Driver Safety Programmes: Virtual Risk Manager
Globally, eDriving provides research-led, yet practical, proven, long term sustainable driver safety programmes, working work with clients and partners in vehicle supply, insurance, training, telemetry, econometric, government, university and NGO sectors.
Sustaining road safety, through innovative risk-led processes, has been at the heart of the eDriving approach for 20 years. Its Virtual Risk Manager (VRM) programme helps organisations ‘build road safety into their DNA’ by bringing policy and multiple risk data streams to life, ensuring expectations are understood, reinforced and evaluated across teams, supply chains and communities.
eDriving’s approach is proven, with more than 1,000,000 drivers, operators and riders securely registered on VRM globally.
Freight Transport Association (FTA) – Van Excellence Scheme
Van Excellence is an industry-led programme facilitated by the FTA to encourage adoption of best-practice safety standards by van operators regardless of their sector or fleet size.
The primary objective of Van Excellence is to identify and share operational best-practice with van operators with a view to reducing exposure to risk to both employees and the public at large.
At its core is the Van Excellence Standard developed in consultation with leading van operators to provide practical and achievable guidance on ‘what good looks like’ in terms of safe van operations.
Click here to find out more.
National Express – Driving Out Harm
National Express Group launched its Driving Out Harm safety programme in 2010 to emphasise the importance of safety in the business, including new standards for the initial training and continual development of drivers.
The programme encourages staff to make sure that their workplace is safe and that they put the safety of customers and colleagues first at all times.
It has led to a reduction in safety incidents across all of the Group’s divisions, most notably in its business in Morocco, where incidents have fallen by 85% in the five years since the new standards were introduced.
Click here to find out more.
Northumbria Police – Operation Dragoon
Operation Dragoon has given road safety a new ‘voice’ in the region by reassuring the road using public that dangerous and inconsiderate driving will not be tolerated and will be taken seriously, in order to deter the most dangerous drivers from using the roads.
This is achieved through a targeted programme of intelligence gathering, risk grading and prosecutions using a range of techniques including surveillance and monitoring. The long term objective is to prevent reoffending.
Click here to find out more.
Road Safety GB – The Academy
The Academy was established in 2013 following a merger between Road Safety GB and IRSO (Institute of Road Safety Officers).
The Academy’s remit is to standardise the delivery of road safety initiatives and interventions across the profession, and ensure that interventions are well researched and evaluated.
As part of this remit, the Academy has developed a suite of courses that are offered at venues across the country, to enhance skills and provide CPD for road safety practitioners.
The first of these courses – the Road Safety Practitioner Foundation Course – has been universally acclaimed as the most significant advance in training for the road safety profession in the last 10 years. The Foundation Course is now accredited by City and Guilds.
In developing the Foundation Course, Road Safety GB also developed a role descriptor for the position of ‘road safety practitioner’ and a standards document which outlines the skills and abilities a road safety practitioner needs in order to fulfil their role.
Click here to find out more.
Transport for London – Safe Streets for London
Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists who together make up around 80% of all those killed or seriously injured on London’s roads are the prime focus of ‘Safe Streets for London’, a comprehensive road safety plan designed to ‘free London’s roads from killed and serious injury casualties’. This focus on vulnerable road user safety sets an international benchmark.
TfL’s long term commitment to road safety is supported by a doubling of funding over the next decade. This significant increase is to ensure that the actions set out in the vulnerable road user plans are adequately resourced to deliver the significant reduction in KSIs required.
Click here to find out more.
Never the same since Peter Green left the judging panel!
William Scotland
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Nice of Mick Fleetwood to agree to present the awards! (One for the older readers)
Hugh Jones, Cheshire
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