ROAD SAFETY GB NATIONWIDE

IN-CAR CHILD SAFETY SEAT CAMPAIGN COMES TO GREATER MANCHESTER

More Than Eight Out Of Ten Child Safety Seats Across The UK Are Incorrectly Fitted - Good Egg Guide To Highlight The Danger To Parents and Carers

Road Safety GB (RSGB), the road safety organisation that represents over 200 Local Authority Road Safety Teams across the UK, is bringing its major national road safety initiative to the North West and will be running educational clinics in towns and cities across the region.

The Good Egg campaign is designed to ensure that babies and children are properly restrained whilst travelling in the car, by showing parents and carers the correct way to fit in-car child safety seats.

This is important because:

• An unrestrained child can be killed in an impact with speeds as low as 5mph.
• If properly restrained a child is three times less likely to sustain a head injury in a collision than an unrestrained child.
• In 2008 more than 5,000 children under twelve were injured as car passengers on British roads.

The initiative will start on 6th September 2010 and will see road safety professionals from Greater Manchester hosting free educational car-seat check clinics, which will demonstrate how to fit various types of safety seat, and distribute the Good Egg Guide.

Parents and carers can find out where clinics will be taking place by visiting the Road Safety GB Good Egg website www.protectchildgb.org.uk.

Alan Kennedy, the Chair of Road Safety GB said: “We’re really excited to be able to announce the launch of Road Safety GB’s national campaign in Greater Manchester. Children and infants are our most vulnerable road users and an ill-fitted car-seat can mean the difference between life and death.

The campaign that launched today, Monday 6th of September, will run throughout England this autumn, and over this period we look forward to helping mums, dads and other carers make sure that their children are safe in the car.

“With sponsorship by Arnold Clark Automobiles together with the support of Local Authorities, Fire and Rescue Services and other key partners; the Good Egg campaign will help to raise awareness of the risks to children being placed in car seats that are not fitted safely. The Good Egg Initiative has been running in Scotland since 2001 and has helped reduce the number of in car child casualties significantly. By being a ‘Good Egg’ parents and carers will be helping to keep their little ones safe in the car.”

Sir Arnold Clark, Chairman and Chief Executive of Arnold Clark Automobiles said: “We’re very pleased to sponsor the Good Egg Initiative and help make a difference in reducing the number of child casualties on the roads. Parents and carers often don’t realise that different cars require different types of safety seat and often think that their child is properly protected when this might not be the case.

“The Good Egg clinics ensure that all attendees get authoritative advice on the best type of in-car child safety seat for their vehicle and the proper method of installation. The clinics will also distribute the Good Egg guide, a manual which provides detailed take-home guidance on all the important issues relating to in-car safety seats.”

The Good Egg clinics will be supported by a national advertisement campaign on bus rears across England. Parents will get the chance to win child car seats by logging on to www.protectchildgb.org.uk and completing the on-line survey.

It is intended that the Good Egg Initiative will become an annual campaign and it will run initially for four weeks, with car seat clinics undertaken over several months this autumn. To find out the nearest clinic to you click  Clinic Dates

DRIVESAFE TACKLES SUMMER DRINK DRIVING HEAD ON

DriveSafe, Greater Manchester’s Casualty Reduction Partnership,  launched an action packed engagement campaign, ‘None For The Road’.

The campaign event saw mascots from Greater Manchester’s football clubs join forces to raise awareness of the dangers of drink driving.

As well as appearances from local mascots, the launch saw a giant inflatable goal post positioned in Albert Square. Passers-by were encouraged to try their luck from the spot but with a twist, they will have to wear ‘beer goggles’- a device which blurs vision and distorts balance so the wearer feels intoxicated. The activity is designed to give participants a real understanding of how alcohol affects co-ordination and ultimately shock people into realising they should never get behind the wheel after, even after only one drink.

Speaking about the campaign, Karen Delaney, communications officer at DriveSafe, said: “It is extremely dangerous to try and calculate alcohol levels – it depends on so many factors, BMI, age, weight and food intake during the day. Those that attempt to calculate whether or not they are over the limit often find themselves being arrested for drink driving, or worse, injuring or killing themselves, or someone else.

“That’s why our message is ‘None For The Road’. If you’re planning on having few drinks, don’t take the risk of getting behind the wheel, Greater Manchester has a fantastic public transport network and if all else fails just call a cab.”

During the event road safety officers and representatives from System One Travelcards handed out One Day Bus Travel passes to encourage people to use the bus network in Greater Manchester, as an alternative to driving.

‘None For The Road’ will incorporate a series of radio and print adverts and a further direct engagement element.

Safety top priority as new camera captures average speed 

DriveSafe, Greater Manchester’s Casualty Reduction Partnership, is aiming to make the roads safer and reduce road casualties by installing the first urban ‘Average Speed Camera’ outside of Greater Manchester’s motorway network.

The pilot scheme is being delivered through a partnership between DriveSafe and Manchester City Council, and is being trialled on the notorious A6104 hotspot, in a bid to reduce the high collision rate.

The device, normally found on motorway networks, will be installed on Victoria Avenue, Blackley where a total of 46 collisions were recorded between 2005 and 2009, four of which were fatal and eight serious, as a result of speeding traffic and aggressive driving.

Previous attempts to improve road safety through speeding intervention include refuge islands, vehicle activated signs, mobile safety camera operations and signing and lining improvements which have all had limited success.

Each average speed camera is in a pair and uses automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) to capture speeding drivers. The entry camera films number plates upon entry into the controlled zone and on exit and if the average speed is over the speed limit, evidence is passed onto the police.

Karen Delaney, communications manager at DriveSafe, Greater Manchester’s Casualty Reduction Partnership, said: “Blackley has received a large amount of negative press coverage over the years as a result of speeding and understandably, there is growing community concern about speeding traffic and aggressive driving.

“Traditional safety cameras are very effective at reducing speed, but roads such as the A6104 route, which has a high level of speed-induced collisions, have huge potential to benefit from these new cameras and we are confident that the device will encourage lower speeds, discourage overtaking manoeuvres and ultimately reduce collisions.”

“Manchester City Council and Drivesafe took the decision to trial this new device as, unlike traditional speed cameras, which see motorists jamming on the brakes as soon as they see a camera and then accelerating as soon as they have passed, the average speed cameras monitor speeding throughout a controlled zone.

“Road safety is a priority in Manchester and tracking a motorist’s average speed has proven successful on motorways, with the number of collisions and speeding both reduced, and so we’ve adapted it to this urban residential area where a 30mph speed limit is in force.”