Brake, the road safety charity, is urging drivers not to get too stressed this weekend as another bank holiday approaches. Latest research by Brake reveals that seven in ten drivers have lost their concentration at the wheel of their vehicle in the past year because of stress. Brake also found that two in five drivers also lost concentration due to distractions from other people in the vehicle.

Headlines from the survey of 841 drivers;

• 60% admitted they have driven while not concentrating due to being upset, annoyed and stressed with other road users behaviour.
• 44% lost concentration behind the wheel worring about personal issues.
• 39% admitted not concentrating due to pressures at work.

It only takes a second lapse of concentration at the wheel to cause an injury or death so Brake is calling on all drivers to keep their mind on the road and pull over if they are unable to concentrate due to stress.

Brake, the road safety charity, has announced the details of Road Safety Week 2011, which is being held between the 21st to the 27th November. Every year Brake chooses a theme to promote the campaign and this year it is being called “2young2die” in an attempt to reduce the number of casualties and accidents of young drivers. Road crashes are the biggest killer of young people, according to Brake’s figures, with 21% of all deaths (aged 15-24).

If you want to take part in the road safety week you can run an educational or campaign event on the theme of “2young2die” or choose your own road safety theme. Brake is offering tips and many ideas on how to get involved and full details and forms can be found at www.roadsafetyweek.org.uk .

Brake, the road safety organisation dedicated to UK road safety has reported that speed cameras are set to return to Oxfordshire on the 1st April 2011, following a 400% increase in speeding at “turned off” camera sites. Thames Valley Police is implementing a new organisational structure to manage the cost and running of the cameras, with funding coming from fees paid by drivers sent on speed awareness courses.

Julie Townsend, campaigns director for Brake, said,”This is fantastic news for communities in Oxfordshire. The bottom line is that cameras are highly effective in reducing speeding and preventing deaths and serious injuries. I just hope that other counties that have turned off all or some of their cameras will follow suit, acknowledging that the big switch off was a terrible blow to community safety”.

Keeping to the UK road speed limits is essential for road safety and in case you are not sure what the limits are, here is the information below. Please note the caveats.

* The 30 mph limit usually applies to all traffic on all roads with street lighting unless signs show otherwise.

** 60 mph (96 km/h) if articulated or towing a trailer.

Brake, the road safety charity, has welcomed the Government’s announcement that drug testing kits will be used by the police within months, but feels the initiative doesn’t go far enough. Mike Penning, road safety minister, announced that drugalysers could be installed at every police station by 2012, with the first being available shortly.

Julie Townsend, campaigns director for Brake, said,”We’re pleased the Government is taking steps towards stamping out the menace of drug-driving- the introduction of drugalysers is long-overdue. However, we need to go further than just introducing testing kits in police stations. In other countries, screening devices are used at the roadside to catch drug-drivers; we need to be moving urgently towards roadside screening in the UK”.

Ms Townsend went onto say,”We also desperately need to close the loophole on drug driving by making it an offence to drive with illegal drugs in your body, so police don’t have to prove impairment, and we need to step up roadside enforcement. These steps are vital if we are to put a stop to those highly selfish drivers who drive on drugs and wreck lives”.

You can read more on Brake’s campaign through the link below.

http://www.brake.org.uk/ban-and-test-for-drug-driving

Brake, the road safety charity, has reacted with horror at the news that many local authorities are cutting or even disbanding their road safety programmes, due to cuts in the road safety grants provided from central Government. The Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership is ceasing operations as a result of the cuts and The Devon and Cornwall Partnership is also under review.

Brake deputy chief executive, Jule Townsend said,”We are horrified that vital road safety work is grinding to a halt as a result of draconian funding cuts made by the Government. We have made a huge amount of progress in reducing tragic, needless and costly road deaths and injuries in recent years- progress that is at great risk of being undone”.

Brake has written to all local authority chief executives asking that road safety work continues and a copy of the letter can be read here.

The annual Fleet Safety Forum Awards for Excellence was held at a gala dinner at the Chesford Grange Hotel in Warwickshire last week, with over 270 guests attending. The awards are run by the Fleet Safety Forum, a division of road safety charity Brake, are sponsored by ARVAL (one of our car leasing partners) and recognise individuals and companies that are developing road risk management.

There were 43 winning or highly commended awards and the major ones (with winnesr) are listed below. The full list is available directly from Brake.

• Safe Vehicles Award: Warburtons Scotland
• Fleet Safety Provider of the Year Award: Applied Driving Techniques
• Fleet Safety Product Award: Michelin Tyre plc for Michelin X One MaxiTrailer Tyre
• Fleet Safety Analysis and Action Awards: Glasgow City Council; Interactive Driving Systems
• Eco Fleet Award: ETS Distribution
• Company Driver Safety Awards: Johnsons Coaches; Ocado; Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions; Vauxhall Motors; Arriva plc
• Road Safety in the Community Award: Balfour Beatty Plant & Fleet Services
• Road Risk Manager of the Year Awards: John Rodell, KBR FTX Logistics; Am Pall, CitySprint
• Kevin Storey Award for Outstanding Commitment to Road Safety: Doug Jenkins, QBE

Fleet managers will be interested to know that Brake, the UK road safety charity, has launched a new website to provide fleets with a “one stop shop” for fleet safety advice, information and resources. The website covers subjects like eco driving, duty of care issues, driver tiredness, forthcoming fleet events, latest fleet news, best practise case studies and a full range of e-learning tools and other resources.

The site is being sponsored by Balfour Beatty Plant & Fleet Services and is available to all subscribers of Brake’s Fleet Safety Forum, which is a non-profit facility aimed at helping companies manage their occupational road risk. Subscription to the forum costs £115+VAT per annum and you can subscribe online at their website. 

Roz Cumming, Fleet Safety Forum Manager at Brake said,”The new site gives fleets a valuable range of information and resources, all in one place, to help them improve safety and save lives. We urge fleets to join our community of safety conscious organisations and sign up today at www.fleetsafetyforum.org, to get full access to this important web portal”.

Brake, the road safety charity, has commented that drug driving conviction levels are shockingly low compared to drink driving rates. The charity is demanding that tough action is taken following academic studies showing a massive rise in drug driving (The Incidence of Drugs and Alcohol in Road Accident Fatalities, TRL, 2000).

But there were only 1,593 convictions for drug driving charges compared to 70,918 for drink driving charges in England and Wales, according to recent government figures (Criminal statistics annual report 2008 Sup V6, by the Ministry for Justice 2010).

Brake is demanding that the police be provided with Government approved drug driving kits so they have the power to check at the roadside for any possible drug use. They are also asking for the offence of drug driving to be similar to drink driving when prosecuting, as currently the police have to prove that the driver was “unfit to drive”.

A new report called the North Report on Drink and Drug Driving, an independent review by Sir Peter North, is due to be published in March. Mary Williams, Brake chief executive said,”We hope that this report will recommend the substantial overhaul of drug-driving legislation and enforcement. Then it will be for the Government to act swiftly to remedy the legal loophole which allows drug-drivers to continue to put all our lives at risk without fear of justice”.

Brake, the road safety charity, is is calling for controls to be introduced for older drivers over the age of 70 following a recent case where a child was killed. An 89 year old driver mounted the pavement after becoming ill at the wheel and unfortunately killed an 18-month boy.

Brake deputy chief executive Cathy Keeler explains their concerns,”Current law requires drivers over the age of 70 to renew their licence and fill in a self assessment form declaring they are safe to drive every three years. Brake believes this isn’t good enough and there should be an annual “fit to drive” health check carried out by a professional. These checks should also be required every five years for drivers under the age of 70, as health can deteriorate at any age”

Brake also has a fact sheet on older drivers that explains more.

Brake, the UK’s road safety charity, has commented on Bolton Council’s decision to limit the time that relatives and friends can leave flowers and memorials at the roadside, to 30 days. Road crash victims have also been banned from having a permanent memorial such as a plaque or a bench.

Ellen Booth, Campaigns office for Brake, commented as follows, “Brake believes that all families should be able to, if they wish to, place flowers and other memorials at the place where their loved ones died. We know that roadside memorials can be a comfort to many grieving families, and they also act as a poignant reminder to drivers that they need to drive safely. As a society we should be trying to support these families, not thoughtlessly putting up barriers to their expressions of grief, causing even further distress”.