RoadPeace celebrates strong and inspiring women

Strong and driven women are at the heart of this year’s RoadPeace Challenge, a campaign designed to reduce death and injury on the UK’s roads. 

To mark International Women’s Day today (8 March), the women, from a variety of backgrounds and areas across the UK, have joined forces to make a united stand against ‘the unacceptable number of people who are killed or injured in road collisions’.

The RoadPeace Challenge brings together the police, fire and rescue service, ambulance crews, NHS, doctors, nurses and other professionals.  

Its week of action takes place between 15-21 May and will raise vital funds for the charity, as well as much-needed awareness about the risks of using the roads.  

The campaign gives road crash victims and bereaved families a voice and gives them an opportunity to tell their stories in the hope of preventing others from walking in their shoes. 

 Among the many women behind the campaign are: 

• Chief constable Jo Shiner, of Sussex Police, and the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for roads policing. As well as being the top roads policing officer in the UK, CC Shiner’s father was killed in a road crash when she was a teenager.
• Katy Bourne OBE, Sussex police & crime commissioner and the national lead for road safety for the Association of Police & Crime Commissioners.  
• Sara Dowling, deputy CEO and director of operations at RoadPeace. Sara is a senior leader at the national charity for road crash victims and co-founder of the RoadPeace Challenge.
• Rebecca Morris, communications and partnerships lead at RoadPeace. Rebecca is a long-standing road danger PR specialist, co-founder of the challenge, and is leading the delivery of the 2023 event.
• Meera Naran MBE – an independent road safety campaigner whose eight-year-old son Dev was killed on a motorway in 2018. 
• Professor Scarlett McNally, consultant orthopaedic surgeon, working in Sussex. She is the lead author of “Exercise the miracle cure” highlighting the health benefits of active travel, including prevention and treatment of major health conditions and road traffic collisions. 
• Dr Helen Wells, senior lecturer in criminology at Keele University and director of the Roads Policing Academic Network. Helen specialises in researching roads policing issues, drink and drug driving, speeding, distracted driving and uninsured driving. 
• Sarah Vaughan, director at Angelica Solutions Services Insurance Consulting. A company owner, passionate about proactively reducing road death and injury and has been a keen supporter of the RoadPeace Challenge since its inception. 
• Pauline Fielding MBE, RoadPeace trustee and co-ordinator of the RoadPeace North West Group. Pauline’s 18-year-old son Andrew was killed in a road crash in 1994 and she has campaigned for safer roads ever since.
• Kate Uzzell, co-ordinator of the RoadPeace South West Group. Kate’s husband Martyn was killed in North Yorkshire during a charity ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats.
• Sonya Byers, CEO of Women in Transport – a not-for-profit established in 2005 aimed at supporting women in the transport industry. 
• Ciara Lee. Her husband Eddy was killed in 2018, when their son was just two, after a van driver ploughed into his motorcycle on the M4. Ciara is a co-founder of the RoadPeace Challenge. 
• Sharron Huddleston. Sharron’s 18-year-old daughter Caitlin was killed in 2017 after the car she was travelling in as a front-seat passenger, collided with an oncoming van. 
• Nicole Taylor. Nicole’s daughter Beccy was killed in a road crash in 2008, aged 18 years, and she has campaigned for safer roads since then.  

Sara Dowling said: “Road crashes should not be tolerated as the inevitable cost of motorisation. As a society, we are not doing enough to prevent the many people who are killed and injured on our roads every day.    

“The RoadPeace Challenge aims to change this and will tell the real stories and the emotions behind road crashes and the devastating impact they have on victims, families, communities and the emergency services. 

“We’re delighted to have the support of so many strong and inspiring women who are all determined to work together to reduce road harm.” 

Jo Shiner said: “We must continue to work together to reduce death and serious injury on our roads. I am very proud and privileged, as a woman, to lead the NPCC Roads Policing Portfolio and play a part in our collective progress towards Vision Zero. 

“I know what it means to have a loved one killed on the roads and am passionate about reducing the number of families that suffer that immense, avoidable, and lasting loss.”

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