Brake issues Road Safety Week briefing notes for RSOs

Brake has issued a series of briefing notes to help road safety officers participate in Road Safety Week, which this year will take place 8-14 November.

The key points are summarised below but for the full version go to www.roadsafetyweek.org.uk and click on ‘information for road safety officers’.

1. Road Safety Week is appreciated by road safety officers who have taken part in the past because it is a national event - therefore local journalists, particularly TV journalists, may be encouraged to run stories about local road safety initiatives that are associated in some way with Road Safety Week. For this reason, planning press releases and photo calls is often a key aspect of road safety officers’ involvement - often in partnership with other agencies such as enforcement and health agencies.

2. Road Safety Week is popular in schools, nurseries and colleges. More than 11,000 teachers order the free Road Safety Week action pack. The pack includes a guide to teaching road safety appropriate to the age of children, posters and competition flyers. Free sample copies are available to RSOs (from June) by calling 01484 559909 or from www.roadsafetyweek.org.uk - click on Information for Educators.

A key role of the action pack is to encourage teachers of all age ranges to contact their road safety unit to help them run practical roadside and classroom training on road safety - and to set up school-wide road safety policies. As such, RSOs may get calls from teachers who have received a pack and need help.

3. Brake provides at-cost promotional resources for road safety units, including balloons, T-shirts and posters, on the media theme of Road Safety Week. In addition, promotional resources that carry Road Safety Week branding but do not mention the drink drive theme are also available. Images of Road Safety Week promotional resources are available by clicking on Order Road Safety Resources on the main menu at www.roadsafetyweek.org.uk.

4. Drink driving has been chosen as the theme for Road Safety Week because of the shocking rise in drink drive casualties over the past decade.

5. Other stakeholders who take part in Road Safety Week include companies who run initiatives for their staff and community groups. If RSOs are promoting fleet safety to local companies and would like free information, Brake’s Fleet Safety Forum provides professional advice to more than 1,000 companies. Click on Information for Employers on the main menu for more information about how Brake targets and involves companies in Road Safety Week.

6. In the run-up to Road Safety Week Brake arranges for banners to be hung in city and town centres promoting the Week. In the past this has included a banner outside the London Transport Museum and banners over the Mersey Tunnel in Liverpool. These banners are often sponsored by local authorities as a key aspect of their involvement in the Week. A number of different designs are available if road safety teams want to sponsor a banner - for the cost of materials only. To see the banner designs click on Order Road Safety Week Resources on the main menu.

Next week we will publish a case study showing how Hull Road Safety Unit successfully participated in Road Safety Week 2003.