Archive for the ‘Educational Campaigns’ Category

Although running a red light is extremely dangerous, it has become common practice in this area. Collision figures reveal that, since the beginning of 2003, there have been over 350 collisions due to motorists running red lights. These crashes have resulted in 551 casualties; 3 of which were fatal. The problem is much bigger than this as there is no accounting for the number of unreported incidents and ‘near misses’ or, to put it another way, ‘near hits’.

 To address this problem, the Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland Safety Camera Scheme is now offering an educational workshop to motorists detected disobeying a red light at the lowest level. The workshop aims to raise awareness of the dangers and risks of disobeying traffic signals, encourage better driving practice and reduce offences. The 2½ hour workshop is delivered by Approved Driving Instructors and road safety professionals. The Traffic Light Workshop, alongside the Speed Awareness Workshop, is delivered by Leicestershire County Council and it is an alternative to the fixed penalty of a £60 fine and 3 points against your licence.

A campaign launched at the beginning of January 2009 was run to help drivers identify and stay within 30mph speed limits. The campaign delivered a very simple message:

‘Street lights, but no speed signs mean the limit is 30′

The message was displayed on billboards across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. It addresses the common reason given by drivers for exceeding speed limits in urban areas; that they didn’t know what the limit was because there were no speed limit signs.

The campaign reminded drivers of information provided in the Highway Code. The Highway Code states that the speed limit in built-up areas is 30mph. It continues by saying “The 30mph limit applies to all traffic on all roads in England and Wales with street lighting unless signs show otherwise.”

In this area, there are 88 camera sites - 53 of which enforce a 30mph limit. With 60% of our sites enforcing 30mph limits, the authorities expect that the majority of offences would be detected for this speed limit. However, our figures reveal that for the previous 3 years, an average 96% of all offences were detected at the 30mph limit.

The ‘Street lights’ campaign addresses these figures and aims to increase motorists’ ability of identifying 30mph zones so that they don’t get ‘caught out’ through lack of knowledge and awareness. Educational campaigns like this coupled with publicity of our camera locations and the mobile camera enforcement schedule all ties into the Safety Camera Scheme’s efforts to combat speeding through education, encouragement and enforcement.

A spokesperson for the Safety Camera Scheme said:

‘The good news is is that speeding offences have reduced dramatically over the last 3 years with 15,000 less offences in 2008 compared with 2006. This indicates that more and more motorists are choosing to obey speed limits.’

‘However, there is still a lot of work to be done to bring this figure down further. Publicity campaigns like this and other educational programmes like the Speed Awareness Workshop all aim to reduce speeding and ultimately facilitate the authorities’ targets for reducing collisions and casualties on our roads.’

Developed by the Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland Road Safety Partnership, the ‘Wasted’ Road Show is geared to address the high level of young drivers and passengers killed and injured on our roads.

From 1st January 2004 to the end of September 2008, there have been:
86 fatal, 361 serious injury and 3,917 injury collisions involving young drivers.

The ‘Wasted’ Road Show is a hard-hitting and thought-provoking event which will make young people think seriously about the responsibilities of driving and the terrible consequences that can result from inexperience combined with high spirits, peer pressure and recklessness.
 
The presentation mixes film with a live, interactive dramatic performance and is based on a real incident which occurred in Ratby, Leicestershire in 2006. The incident resulted in the tragic death of Hannah Barnsley, aged just 15 years old, two other passengers suffered severe injuries and the driver was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving.

To watch the video trailer for the event, visit www.wastedroadshow.com

To contact the team to find out more or book places, please call Hema on 0116 305 8201 or email hlad@leics.gov.uk

27 x 1hr presentations have been scheduled over a 2 week period from Tuesday 3rd February 2009 to Friday 13th February 2009 at the following venues:

Peepul Centre, Leicester
Loughborough Town Hall
Uppingham Theatre
Leicester College (Leicester College students only)
Wyggeston & Queen Elizabeth I College (WQEI College students only)

Red light running has become an increasingly common problem on our roads.  Many people have been injured and lives have been lost as a result.

In the last 5 years, there have been nearly 300 collisions in the area because of motorists disobeying traffic signals. These crashes resulted in nearly 450 casualties; 3 of these were fatal. The problem is much bigger than this as there is no accounting for the number of ‘near misses’ or, to put it another way, ‘near hits’.

What is just as worrying is that there doesn’t seem to be a significant drop in the number of motorists being caught running red lights. Although people are being caught breaking the law, there doesn’t seem to be positive trend in the reduction of red light running.

To address the issue, an educational publicity campaign has been launched in September 2008 to highlight the risks involved. The outdoor element of the campaign shows an incident picked up by a red light camera when a car narrowly escaped a major collision with another car when it ran a red light. The supporting radio campaign re-enacts the thoughts going through the mind of a motorist in a hurry or impatient to get to his destination as he approaches changing traffic signals.

A spokesperson for the Safety Camera Scheme said:

“We are disappointed that red light running offences have not reduced significantly over the years. We all observe the problem on our roads everyday; cars trying to ‘sneak through’ or accelerating as the traffic lights are turning red. This campaign aims to make people think carefully about the dangers of taking risks at traffic signals and bring about a positive change in behaviour.”

Every day two young drivers are killed on Britain’s roads. It is statistics like this that are behind the striking new campaign ‘No more lives wasted’.

The campaign includes a series of thought-provoking posters and a website with video clips, facts and figures and advice for new drivers. Visit www.nomoreliveswasted.com for more info.

FACTFILE:

• Young drivers are more likely to kill or injure themselves or their passengers in a road crash.  Young people under 25 represent just one in ten of all car drivers, but about one in four of all car drivers killed or seriously injured.
• Young people are far more likely to be killed on the road than older people, meaning road deaths are often a tragic waste of young life.
• Driving too fast for the road and weather conditions and driving too close to the vehicle in front are just two examples of dangerous actions. Risk taking is most common among young men and results in many females dieing as passengers.
• Many young drivers and passengers fail to belt up. If everybody belted up and ensured that their passengers did too, many lives could be saved.
• Drivers aged between 17 and 25 make up a disproportionate number of offenders and casualties in drink-driving incidents.

In December 2006, the Safety Camera Scheme, as part of the Midlands Safety Camera Partnership, received a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award under the category of Public Education for the Speeding - It’s Not Impressive campaign targeting young drivers. The hard-hitting campaign was designed to persuade speeding motorists to change the way they drive. The campaign was based on the findings of a detailed research project into driver attitude and behaviour and incorporated feedback from speeding drivers on how advertising could best be used to encourage them to slow down.

Speeding - It’s not impressive brings home the consequences of speeding to teenagers and young adult drivers. The campaign plays on these drivers’ concerns that their fast driving could result in someone close to them being killed or injured. The strap lines of ‘Out with your mates?’ and ‘First date?’ were used alongside hard-hitting visuals of the aftermath of a collision.

Order this resource.