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.

Fuel prices rising

A new survey conducted by RoadPilot, the GPS speed camera application for smartphones, has found that 46 per cent of motorists have reduced their average speed in the past 12 months, with fuel costs listed as the main reason.

This was ahead of speed cameras and congestion and it demonstrates how UK drivers are monitoring their fuel consumption more closely than ever.

The number of motorists who have reduced their average speed due to fuel prices was 33 per cent, 22 per cent cited greater “road congestion” and just 13 per cent  said “traffic enforcement” was the main reason.

The study also found that 40 per cent of motorists are monitoring their vehicle’s fuel consumption more closely than they did a year ago. In addition, 86 per cent of motorists said fuel efficiency and emissions were “quite or very important” when buying a car.

James Flynn, CEO of RoadPilot said,”The cost of filling up seems to be a more effective deterrent to speeding for most drivers than the possible risk of incurring a speeding fine. It appears that motorists are putting their own driving driving techniques under greater scrutiny than ever before, and as a result their average speeds have started to come down, which can only benefit road safety.

Choosing your next car (or van) by its fuel efficiency can be a laborious process if you are looking at several models and that’s one of the reasons why the Vehicle Type Shopper on the site is so useful. Just select the manufacturers you are interested in (or all) and then set what combined mpg and what CO2 emissions you want from your next vehicle and see the results. You can also see the monthly vehicle leasing rental for each vehicle as well.

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”.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has welcomed a new Scottish initiative that aims to raise the importance of wearing a seatbelt. The Have You Clicked? campaign was launched by the Scottish Government, Road Safety Scotland and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland.

Kathleen Braidwood, RoSPA Scotland’s road safety officer said,”This new campaign presents a fantastic opportunity to focus on an issue that has the potential to save lives and reduce the number and severity of injuries on Scotland’s roads. Nearly a third of people killed in cars are not wearing seatbelts and it has been estimated that at least half of those would have survived had they been strapped in”.

The safety charity is also highlighting the importance of choosing the right car seats and that seat belts are fitted correctly. To help with this, RoSPA is also training road safety professionals in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness on how to choose and fit car seats correctly.

On Sunday the 28th March, the clocks will go forward by one hour giving us an extra hour of daylight. However this will of course mean that we will lose an hour of sleep.

GEM Motoring Assist (GEM), the road safety and breakdown cover organisation is warning all car and commercial vehicle drivers to make sure they adapt their driving routines accordingly.

According to the ROSPA (the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents), research suggests that up to 20% of accidents are fatigue related and losing an hour of sleep is only going to increase levels of tiredness.

Honda driving simulator

Honda has started to sell an innovative new driving simulator in Japan which has been designed to improve road safety by allowing users to learn from dangerous driving situations in a safe virtual environment.

Honda driving simulator

The new driving model has a range of features to help drivers improve their driving skills with easy to understand graphics and descriptions of potentially dangerous driving situations.

The unit has also an easy to use touch panel monitor and high definition 42-inch LCD display and features night, fog and motorway situations as standard.

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”.