Cumbria goes mobile with safety messages

Working in partnership with a regional newspaper, Safer Roads for Cumbria is using mobile phone technology to get road safety messages across to younger drivers.

Club and pub goers are being encouraged to use their mobile phones to submit photographs of their friends on a night out to the News and Star. In return, they receive a text acknowledgement accompanied by a road safety message.

Kevin Tea, communications manager for Safer Roads for Cumbria, explained: "We cannot reach some of this target audience through other media such as radio, TV and newspapers, so we need to look at how we can talk to them and SMS text and MMS messaging is ideal.

"We are launching the campaign with a simple text message response, but will be examining how we can use other technology to make our contact with young drivers more interactive. They are used to sophisticated computer and mobile phone based entertainment so we need to explore how we can utilise this approach."

For further information contact Kevin Tea on 01768 217791, or kevin.tea@cumbriacc.gov.uk .