Road Safety Week 2020
South Wales Fire and Rescue Service is proud to be taking part in the UK’s biggest road safety event, Road Safety Week (16-22 November), coordinated by Brake, the road safety charity, and sponsored by Specsavers and DHL. This year, thousands of organisations, schools and community groups sharing the what, the why and the where of speed, because whether you’re walking to school, riding on a country road or driving for work, the speed of traffic matters to your safety.
Road Safety Week is the UK’s flagship event to promote safer road use, coordinated annually by the charity Brake and involving thousands of schools, communities and organisations across the country. Road Safety Week 2020 takes place 16-22 November, with support from the Department for Transport and sponsors Specsavers and DHL.
As part of the campaign, our Road Safety Team will be running a series of socially distanced Road Safety Roadshows in South Wales where we’ll be discussing driver behaviour and the Fatal 5. The Fatal 5 refers to the five most significant factors which lead to death and serious injury in road traffic collisions in Wales. By utilising our Crash Car and Education Engagement Vehicle (EEV), the team will be highlighting the dangers and the serious consequences careless driving can have. Our goal is to educate the public in order to make South Wales a safer place.
Speed is important because it plays a part in every death and injury on our roads. The formula is simple: the higher the speed the harder the crash and the greater the risk of death and injury. This year’s Road Safety Week theme, ‘No Need to Speed’, is a reminder to everyone of how the speed they travel affects other people.
Brake is urging everyone to remember that speed matters for everyone’s safety, health and wellbeing. By taking part in Road Safety Week, you can help inspire people to learn what safe speeds are, schools to teach young people about how their local streets can have safer speeds, and organisations to step up their policies and procedures to ensure that their employees always travel at speeds that are safe and appropriate for the roads.
Josh Harris, director of campaigns at Brake, said: “In a crash, just 1mph can mean the difference between life and death, but sadly we know that many people still regularly break the speed limit or travel too fast for the conditions of the road. With someone injured on a UK road every four minutes, and vehicle speed playing a part in every crash, it’s never been more important that we all shout out that there is No Need to Speed.”
Road Traffic Collision Reduction Manager James Connor from South Wales Fire and Rescue Service said: “Our organisation plays a crucial role in supporting, promoting and raising awareness of road safety week. By utilising our resources and collaborating with our partners, we aim to save lives, prevent accidents and injuries and reduce the number of incidents on the roads of South Wales.”
At each location, our Road Safety Team will be available from 10am to 4pm with our Crash Car, EEV and Crash Simulator to engage with the public and answer their road safety questions. Please follow all social distancing, safety measures and guidance in place.
