The Sussex Safer Roads Partnership (SSRP) attended the annual Festival of Speed earlier this month, as part of efforts to maximise engagement opportunities with road users.
Held at the Goodwood Estate, West Sussex, more than 30 members of the SSUP team – from nine organisations – attended the event, highlighting the collaborative, team ethic among partners, as well as the ‘brilliant work’ of external agencies.
The team welcomed anyone with road safety concerns to come up and talk to them. They advised on cycling, driving, riding, and walking (among other subjects).
The tagline for this year’s festival was ‘Horseless to Hybrid – Revolutions in Power’. Feeding into this, the SSRP displayed a range of transport options including pedal bikes, motorbikes, a safety camera van and marked police cars.
Due to the audience this event attracts, the partnership directed a large proportion of the focus on speed as a contributory factor within road traffic collisions.
SSRP focused on the impact speed has on reactions, while asking people to remove distractions when driving and calling on them to take positive action around their road safety behaviour.
The partnership ran a campaign alongside its attendance focusing on ‘Actions, Reactions, and Distractions!’. This generated interest online, reaching those who were not in attendance at the festival.
There were also had a range of attractions on the SSRP stand, including:
- Driving simulator provided by University College of London
- Digital screens, provided by Co-Pilot, which showcased a variety of campaign material
- First Car who collaborated with SSRP on generating engaging and fresh online content for TikTok
- Road safety professionals from PathFinder and The Under 17 Car Club educating the next generation of road users
- Brake test overseen by our casualty reduction officers
- Reaction test demonstrating the effect of distraction and/or being under the influence on reaction times
- Safety camera van and equipment, which allowed visitors to see behind the lens;
- Marked police vehicles, ranging from motorbikes to cars
- A range of bikes, provided by West Sussex Fire and Rescue, highlighting the importance of being bright and being seen
Sophie Witney, SSRP manager, said: “[It was] great to get out and visit some of my team at Goodwood Festival of Speed, working hard to maximise engagement opportunities to educate Sussex and other road users on safe/unsafe road use, #Fatal5 offences and raise the importance in the role we can all play in challenging and changing behaviours to ultimately reduce those killed or seriously injured on our road networks.”
Comment on this story