Road Safety Week- updates from around the country

Today (23 November) marks the start of Road Safety Week 2015, Brake’s flagship annual event to promote safer road use across the UK.

Supported by the Department for Transport (DfT) and headline sponsors AIG and Specsavers, this year the week aims to encourage people to think about their car use and how they might ‘drive less, live more’.

Brake says it wants to help prevent the five deaths and 64 serious injuries that happen daily on UK roads, as well as highlighting the financial, health and environmental benefits of sustainable travel.

Thousands of schools, communities, local authorities and organisations across the country are expected to take part and Brake is encouraging as many people and organisations as possible to get involved.

Road Safety Week resources include posters, banners, guides and factsheets as well as an interactive resource. Brake is also encouraging people to tweet about Road Safety Week, using the hashtags #RoadSafetyWeek and #drivelesslivemore.

To mark the start of the Week, Brake released figures that reveal the effects that driving has on health and wellbeing, and how levels of ‘inactivity’ vary in different regions of the UK.

Stakeholder support

A number of road safety stakeholders and other organisations are planning activity in support of Road Safety Week.

GEM Motoring Assist has published four tips for drivers to do their bit to reduce road deaths and injuries: slow down, be observant, forgive others and be alert.

David Williams MBE, GEM chief executive, said: “Every road user can make a difference, whether they’re a car driver, a truck driver, a cyclist, motorcyclist or pedestrian. We encourage everyone to take time and think about how they can be safer on their journeys. By doing this, they’ll immediately be reducing risk for themselves and those around them.”

The Freight Transport Association(FTA) is encouraging HGV drivers and cyclists to exchange places in a bid to raise awareness and understanding.

FTA is joining Brake and the Metropolitan Police at the launch of the annual event, where an Exchanging Places exercise is taking place at Horse Guards Parade, London, to give cyclists the chance to see the road from the driver’s seat of a large goods vehicle.

Christopher Snelling, FTA’s head of national and regional policy, said: “We are pleased to support this excellent initiative. Our aim is for everyone to be able to share the road safely.

“FTA members are investing in technology, driver training and improved vehicles to continue to improve our performance on road safety. Providing vehicles for events such as these is part of that work – reaching out to the communities that we work in.”