Fire & Rescue: Cut It Out.

The Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland Safety Camera Scheme and Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Service (LFRS) teamed up to launch a road safety awareness campaign highlighting LFRS’s increasing role in road traffic collisions (RTCs).

The advertising campaign features billboards using the slogans ‘Cut It Out’ and ‘Give Us a Break‘ and supported by a high impact radio campaign depicting the traumatic scenarios that Fire & Rescue Officers have to deal with.

In 2004 they had to attend to over 800 traffic incidents, which demonstrates that their resources are increasingly used on roads rather than in fire safety and prevention. Ask a group of fire-fighters what they did at work today and you’ll find that increasingly their resources are being stretched far and wide to deal with road traffic collisions. These days it’s just as likely that the LFRS will get called out to a RTC than to a fire situation.

Although unpopular with some, safety cameras are helping to ease the burden. Excessive speed is a factor in over 1,000 deaths on Britain’s roads every year. In Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, the number of people killed or seriously injured at camera sites has been more than halved since their introduction.

Wayne Cotton, Watch Manager at our Oakham Fire and Rescue Station said:

“A lot of our time is taken up attending Road Traffic Collisions and having to deal with the carnage on a daily basis. Through this campaign we are hoping to get the message across that accidents are avoidable, people need to drive more responsibly and slow down. Better to be late in this life than early in the next one.”