Road Safety Week 2016 – what happened around the country?

A number of road safety teams and other stakeholders organised events as part of 2016 Road Safety Week and throughout the week we published details of activities being staged across the country.

The theme for Road Safety Week 2016 was ‘Make the Brake Pledge’, with the road safety charity asking people to promise to adhere to the six pledge points: Slow, Sober, Secure, Silent, Sharp and Sustainable.

To mark the launch of the week, Brake published the results of a survey, which suggests that speeding and distracted drivers are considered the ‘biggest threats on our roads’.

What happened around the country?

Leeds

Leeds City Council, along with its partners, headed into the classroom to teach young people the importance of staying safe on the roads. The sessions included:

Brighton
In support of Road Safety Week, Brighton and Hove City Council has launched a new campaign to highlight the dangers of distraction. ‘What Did I Miss?’ aims to address the 42% of the road casualties on the road in Brighton & Hove which are due to people failing to look properly or being distracted.

The campaign features a point of view film (below) which brings together the journey of a cyclist, pedestrian and van driver.  They are all distracted – and get away with it – but come together at the end, this time with consequences.

Wirral
Wirral Council’s Road Safety Team has organised a range of events, including:

• 24 November (2pm-4pm): Living Streets engagement with pedestrians (Pyramid Shopping Centre, Birkenhead)

• 25 November (all day): Mind Your Business – road safety at work presentations to those staff that drive for work (Liverpool John Moores University)

More information on the events can be found on Wirral Council’s Twitter page.

Brake
Brake has produced two free interactive resources to support this year’s “Make the Brake Pledge” theme. Developed with the support of the Department for Transport, the resources encourage everyone to think about how our streets can be made safer by buckling up and concentrating on the road.

Take the seat belt challenge, based on the ‘Secure’ element of the Pledge, is a game for early years and Key Stage 1 children. It helps them to understand the importance of fastening seat belts and putting loose items out of harm’s way when travelling by car.

Driven to distraction!, based on the ‘Silent’ element of the Pledge, is a fun game for all ages. It challenges players to hunt out different ways in which road users can be distracted, revealing some surprising facts as the game unfolds.

Lewisham 
As part of Road Safety Week, Lewisham Council has made a number of Good Egg Guides available to download from its website.

The guides cover the following areas: new drivers, parents of new drivers, child car seat safety, older road users, motorcycle riders (mopeds and scooters) and cycling for families.

Click here to find out more

Conwy County Borough Council
As part of Road Safety Week, Barry Dunn, from Conwy County Borough Council, paid a visit to a number of secondary schools in the county – talking to Year 12/13 pupils about becoming a young driver and all the different things to think about when they start to drive. 

City of London
The City of London Corporation is organising a one-day conference (23 Nov, 4.30 – 8.00pm), titled: ‘Safer in the City – Fun, Healthy & Safer Commuting’.

The event, held at Nomura (1 Angel Lane), will see business representatives hear from leading experts on how to make the commute to work fun, healthy and safer for their staff.

Up to 400,000 commuters arrive in The Square Mile each day, most of whom walk or cycle to their final destination. Active commuting is great for health, air quality, and the environment, it is therefore something that The City of London Corporation wishes to promote.

However, last year 372 people were injured in collisions on the City’s streets, of which 83% were pedestrians or cyclists.

Click here to register to attend the conference, or contact Emma Norton for more details.

Essex

The Safer Essex Road Partnership (SERP) is supporting Road Safety Week 2016 with a number of public events including:

22 November
• Public engagement day (Wickford High Street) – delivery of road safety information to all road users (9am-2pm)

23 November
• Mini Surround A Town day (Maldon) – 9am-3pm

24 November
• Winter Don’t Drink and Drive Display (The Forum, Southend) – 8am-10pm

26 November
• Road Safety Day – engaging on anti-social driving (Brentwood) – 10am-1pm

27 November
• Young driver scheme (Colchester Stadium) – from 9am

Click here for more details of the above events, and other events organised as part of the week.

Carmarthenshire
The council’s road safety team has organised various events from free child car seat checks to walk to school initiatives, young driver education and older driver refresher courses.

The child car seat checks will be held at Parc Y Scarlets on 22 November (3-6pm). No appointment is needed, officers will check that the seat is suitable for the vehicle and is fitted securely as well as being appropriate for the child. The event is being held in partnership with Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service, Dyfed-Powys Police and Parc Y Scarlets and everyone who has a car seat check will be entered into a prize draw to win a family ticket to a forthcoming Scarlets’ game.

Officers will be attending Coleg Sir Gâr’s Graig Campus in Llanelli to deliver the Young Driver’s Programme; as well as delivering road safety education to Year Eight pupils at Glanymor School in Burry Port.

Road safety officers will also be teaming up with the police and fire service to target speeding drivers outside primary schools. Offending drivers will be given the option of speaking to the pupils to explain why they were speeding outside their school or accept a fixed penalty notice as part of the ‘Speed Reduction Initiative’.

Cheshire
Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service (pictured) is staging a series of road safety events across the county, including:

• Widnes (Rivendell Garden Centre) – 21 Nov: 10am-3pm:
• Warrington (various location) – 26 Nov
• Stockton Heath; visit to Priestley College
• Ellesmere Port (fire station) – 23 Nov
• Chester; visit to University of Chester
• Crewe and Nantwich (Morrison’s in Nantwich) – 24 Nov: 2pm-4pm

Click here for more information about these events.

Somerset
Somerset Road Safety is running events and promoting Road Safety Week on its Twitter and Facebook pages.

21 November
• Bikeability training at Bishops Hull Primary School, Taunton

22 November
• Bikeability at Thurlbear Primary School, Taunton
• A Contract 4 Life presentation at the Hair Academy, Taunton.

23 November
• Bikeability at St John’s Primary School, Wellington
• Contract 4 Life at Frome College
• A road safety talk at Christ Church School, Frome & Coxley Primary School, nr Wells
• A Route 60+ talk in North Cadbury.

 24 November
• Bikeability at Thurlbear Primary School, Taunton
• Contract 4 Life at Taunton School.
• Road Safety Talks at St. Peter’s Primary School, Williton
• Delivering the ‘Be Bright Be Seen’ message at the switching on of Christmas lights in Bridgwater.

Lancashire
The stage presentation ‘SafeDrive StayAlive’ will be delivered to Lancashire’s 10,000th student this week to coincide with Road Safety Week. The presentation features speakers who have come forward to share their experiences in a bid to reduce the number of young people killed or seriously injured on Lancashire’s roads.

The initiative was launched in July last year and has been rolled out to college and sixth form students in Blackburn, Chorley, Preston, Lancaster, Blackpool and Burnley over the past 12 months by the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety. The initiative will reach its 10,000th student at the Burnley Mechanics Theatre on Tuesday 22 November 2016.