Road Safety Week – a case study

A number of local authorities participated in Road Safety Week 2003 and linked their local road safety activities to the Week to raise awareness in their area - with the support of promotional resources from Brake, the road safety charity that organises the Week.

One of these was Hull Road Safety Unit, which ran a hard-hitting campaign. Held at Hull’s Kingston Communication Stadium road safety officers laid out thousands of shoes - many of which were donated by celebrity and sport stars, including Paula Radcliffe and June Brown (aka Dot Cotton) - to represent the number of lives lost on UK roads.

The road safety team also linked up with the local police force and arranged for a police helicopter to film the 3,200 pairs of shoes from the sky. The team now plans to use these powerful stills as awareness raising posters.

Media coverage included the Yorkshire Post and Hull Daily Mail and film crews from Look North and Calendar (regional news programmes) attended the launch - to cover Road Safety Week and at the same time promote Hull’s ongoing road safety initiatives.

"To have a week completely designated to road safety each year is fantastic," says Andy Deyes, road safety officer. "It enables us to focus on key road safety issues specific to Hull, attain excellent media coverage, and raise awareness of the horrific number of people killed on the roads every year."

Road Safety Week 2004 will take place 8-14 November. For further information go to www.roadsafetyweek.org.uk.