Dorset pilots ‘Community Safe Drive’ initiative

Dorset County Council’s road safety ETP team is piloting ‘Community Safety Drive’, an initiative to promote practical driver improvement, with a spin-off relating to the school run.

"Local communities frequently demand that something be done about what they see as a dangerous stretch of road or route," says Robert Smith, the council’s road safety team leader. "In reality the problem is mainly about driver behaviour of course.

In response to these public concerns, the ETP team has been experimenting with offering drivers in these local communities a ‘free’ 90 minute accompanied drive with an experienced driving instructor - to refresh their driving skills and knowledge using the particular stretch of road or route in question.

"The intention is to help them avoid becoming a road crash victim by improving their driving awareness and concentration along a route where they are regular commuters," Robert Smith explains.

Community Safe Drive builds on a well-established and successful driver improvement programme that has been running in Dorset for the past 10 years. Funding to roll out the programme is being provided by the local Primary Care Trust, via the Strategic Health Authority. Local parish councils and businesses will be asked to provide further partnership funding in due course.

The spin-off from these trials is another new idea aimed at improving the driving standards of parents on the school run.

"Latest child casualty statistics in Dorset reveal that - for the first time - children are more likely to be injured as car occupants on the school run than they are as either pedestrians or cyclists," says Sue Virgin, senior road safety officer. "According to an annual survey conducted across the county child seat belt wearing rates are already very high at school run times, so addressing poor parent driver behaviour is now a key focus for the road safety team.

A primary school with an established school travel plan has agreed to promote the road safety team's offer of ‘free’ driver awareness sessions for up to 20 parents who regularly drive to and from the school. The approach is similar to Community Safety Drive, with parents spending an hour with a driving instructor, experiencing both town and country driving in an effort to improve their awareness and concentration. School travel and in-car safety issues will also be addressed during the sessions.

Further information about this initiative can be obtained from Robert Smith r.smith@dorsetcc.gov.uk or Sue Virgin s.virgin@dorsetcc.gov.uk