Saving lives and reducing injuries...ON THE ROAD
Supporting national and local road safety strategies
Why? With road deaths falling to below 2,000 across the UK for the first time, the value of a comprehensive road safety strategy has been demonstrated clearly. We are delighted that our work over 94 years has played a central role in this achievement, for example through the seat belt law amendment introduced by one of our former presidents which has saved more than 60,000 lives. That is why we continue to support a strategic approach, promoting national leadership and helping practitioners who are working "on the ground".
What we did: We worked with the DfT to develop and launch a free website to help road safety practitioners evaluate their education, training and publicity activities. Central to www.roadsafetyevaluation.com is E-valu-it – a unique interactive tool that helps practitioners define exactly what they are doing and why and then carry out their evaluation. Nearly 300 practitioners registered on the site before the end of the year. Free training in the use of E-valu-it was provided at workshops for road safety practitioners across Britain.
Other practical help for practitioners came in the form of advice about acting on road safety in the midst of budget pressures. Our Road Safety Seminar focused on this issue and we partnered with a range of other road safety organisations to produce a joint briefing document for local authority chief executives, called Making it Count, to help them set spending priorities. We also produced a joint communiqué to spark an informed debate about the role and future of safety cameras.
"I am delighted that we have been able to work with RoSPA to develop this invaluable tool and I hope it will be widely used by road safety practitioners."
Mike Penning, road safety minister, speaking about www.roadsafetyevaluation.com
In Scotland, we continued to be represented on the Strategic Partnership Board and Operational Partnership Group, tasked with taking forward the commitments outlined in Scotland's Road Safety Framework to 2020. The framework's Annual Report 2010 acknowledged RoSPA Scotland's contribution to the commitments through E-valu-it, ScORSA and in-car safety training. In order to support the Scottish Government and ACPOS seat belt campaign, we extended our child car seats training for road safety practitioners to make it available to professionals in health, education and community roles. We were also part of a working group developing a qualification for road safety practitioners, in partnership with the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and the Scottish Government.
On the UK-wide campaigns front, we continued with our long-running daylight saving campaign and were delighted that 765 people registered their support on our website. And there was pleasing progress in Parliament when Rebecca Harris MP's Daylight Saving Bill, which proposes a cross-departmental analysis of the costs and benefits, passed its second reading. We also became an official supporter of 10:10's Lighter Later campaign.
On drink driving, having responded to the North Review, we welcomed the subsequent recommendations, which included the lowering of the drink-drive limit. Although the ensuing Government response did not include this recommendation, we were pleased that a raft of new measures, including the closing of loopholes to make it easier to conduct roadside breath tests, were announced. In Scotland, we used the opportunity presented by the Scotland Bill consultation to call for Scotland to have the power to lower its drink-drive limit.
Improving driving and motorcycling standards
Why? A driver or rider error or reaction remains the most frequently reported contributory factor in accidents. RoSPA Advanced Drivers and Riders (RoADAR) groups exist across the country to reduce road accidents by encouraging an interest in road safety and improving driving standards, knowledge and skill.
Bob Smalley, RoSPA's chief driving examiner, and RoADAR member Stan McMillan.
What we did: We celebrated a milestone with Stan McMillan, one of our longest-serving RoADAR members, with 2010 marking 45 years since he took his first advanced driving test. Stan, 82, has taken a test at advanced or diploma level every year, bar one, since 1965. He achieved Gold standard again in 2010.
"After a while, people's standards go down rather than up. They can get sloppy. It is important that people take regular training to keep them on the ball and improve their driving. It is vitally important, especially as you get older. I think everybody should do it."RoADAR member Stan McMillan, 82, from Lincolnshire
We worked with TRL and the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) to evaluate the proposed new learning to drive syllabus and process; with the DSA on its Modernising Driver Training and Learning to Ride programmes; and with the Department for Transport (DfT) and DSA on a review of the practical motorcycle test. Also, we were delighted that RoSPA's National Diploma in Advanced Motorcycle Instruction achieved DSA accreditation, enabling direct entry through the Diploma on to the DSA Register of Post-test Motorcycle Trainers.
Our road safety team in Wales continued to serve an integral role in the Road Safety Wales structure and remained a key player in national initiatives ranging from Pass Plus Cymru and BikeSafe Cymru to the management of road safety websites aimed at the general public and road safety practitioners: www.roadsafetywales.org.uk, www.jrsocymru.org.uk and www.dragondriver.com
Raising road safety awareness
Why? With common contributory factors to road accidents including speeding, drink driving and careless driving, and failure to wear a seatbelt claiming nearly 400 lives a year, it is clear that improved behaviour could cut road casualties. We raise awareness of issues like these and provide practical help so road users can take steps to change their behaviour.
What we did: We continued to maintain and improve our extensive web presence, and there were more than 1.7million visits to the road safety section of the RoSPA website and to our various satellite sites, including www.childcarseats.org.uk and www.helpingldrivers.com. Our road safety advice documents were downloaded more than half a million times.
An issue on which our work continued to develop was the safety of children on driveways and we released the findings of a survey conducted in conjunction with the Iain Goodwill Trust. More than half of the parents, grandparents and carers surveyed could recall a time when a child had followed them out on to the driveway without them realising and nearly a quarter said they had started to manoeuvre a vehicle on the driveway and then realised a child was close to the car. Based on the findings, work began on preparing a new poster to share some simple driveway safety tips.
In Wales, we co-ordinated the production of bi-lingual road safety resources covering child pedestrian, cyclist and mobility scooter safety.
Helping employers manage occupational road risk (MORR™)
Why? With around a third of crashes on Britain's roads involving someone who is at work at the time, we campaign for the management of occupational road risk to be taken seriously by employers and regulators and provide practical help for employers, including through our MORR™ suite of products and services. Acting on occupational road risk makes sense for moral, legal and business reasons.
David Jamieson presented a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award to Lindsey Simkins, RoSPA's road safety research and evaluation officer, and Duncan Vernon, RoSPA's road safety manager for England.
What we did: Our campaign, which was the first to reveal occupational road risk as the "hidden killer" on Britain's roads, reached its 15th anniversary. We marked the occasion by urging businesses and organisations to make 2011 the year in which they committed to regularly reviewing and improving their road safety arrangements.
We have remained at the forefront of action on this subject and this year our road safety team in England were the proud recipients of a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award, presented in recognition of the Young Drivers at Work Project. The project, conducted between 2008 and 2010, resulted in the development of the Young Drivers at Work Workshop, for which an online toolkit for local authority road safety officers and employers remains freely available.
"Well researched programmes, like RoSPA's, thoroughly deserve the recognition these awards give. Young drivers are one of the highest risk groups on our roads. Working with them to develop strategies that address the underlying causes of crashes is essential to improving safety. All businesses should adopt this approach."
David Jamieson, former road safety minister, RoadSafe board member and vice-chairman of the West Midlands Road Safety Partnership, who presented RoSPA with its Prince Michael International Road Safety Award
In Scotland, the Scottish Occupational Road Safety Alliance (ScORSA), of which RoSPA was a founder partner, continued to offer free help to small and medium-sized firms and launched its bi-monthly newsletter. We were delighted to promote ScORSA to visitors to the Royal Highland Show's Road Safety Village and at events in Edinburgh. Work began on producing the ScORSA Toolkit which was funded by Transport Scotland and the Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives, to provide employers and road safety officers with new resources to use with those who drive for work.
"The National Diploma in Advanced Instruction was the best driving course I've ever done. I have improved very much during my time here."
Vladimir Leontenkov, health, safety and environment manager, Shell Exploration and Production
Our road safety training accreditation reached Oman.
In the fleet training arena, our international influence extended when we welcomed our first Russian delegates - from Active Safety LLC and Shell Exploration and Production - on to our Advanced Driving and National Diploma in Advanced Driving Instruction courses. To respond to growing demand for our services overseas, we developed a new International Diploma in Advanced Driving Instruction, which can be tailored to the needs of the specific country, organisation and participants. We also travelled to Muscat, in the Sultanate of Oman, to accredit the training provided by TATI (Technical and Administrative Training Institute) and several of its driver trainers were also awarded the National Diploma in Advanced Driving Instruction.
We launched Driver Profiler 20:20 - a new version of our award-winning online driver risk assessment tool.
For the second year in a row, Tesco Dotcom won our prestigious MORR Trophy, which was sponsored by Allianz Insurance plc.
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