Safeguarding - Road Safety
St. Edward’s made the Brake Pledge for national Road Safety Week
St. Edward’s Catholic Primary School took part in the UK’s biggest road safety event, Road Safety Week (21-27 November), coordinated by Brake, the road safety charity. This year, thousands of organisations, schools and community groups backed the Make the Brake Pledge campaign, and helped to spread awareness about six simple things to save lives and the planet.
As part of the campaign, our school is ran a variety of special learning activities throughout the week, accumulating in a Road Safety Assembly supported by Irwin Mitchell, and a protest walk on Road Safety Day on Friday 25th November. We wanted to highlight the problems with traffic and careless driving and parking that we have around our school. There has been a significant increase in road traffic accidents along the Pershore Road, and we need to ensure that our pupils know how to keep themselves safe on our busy roads. We had the support of parents nd carers, who recognised their contribution to road safety.
The Road Safety Week 2016 theme, Make the Brake Pledge, was about people all over the country understanding six key things they can do to protect themselves and the people around them, and reduce emissions and pollution from vehicles. The six Brake Pledge points were: Slow, Sober, Secure, Silent, Sharp and Sustainable.
Every day, five people are killed and more than 60 people are seriously injured on UK roads [1][2]. There are an estimated further 29,000 deaths from particulate matter pollution in the UK [3], 5,000 of which are attributable to road transport [4], and an additional 23,500 deaths from NO2 [5]. Brake asked everyone to help end this needless suffering by spreading the word in Road Safety Week about the life-saving importance of the Pledge.
To mark the start of Road Safety Week, Brake released the results of research revealing what people perceive to be the biggest threats on Britain’s roads, and what dangerous habits they admit to having themselves. Find out more in the Road Safety Week newsroom from Monday 21 November, or email news@brake.org.uk
Dave Nichols, community engagement manager for Brake, said at the time: “We’re delighted St. Edward’s Catholic Primary School is getting involved with Road Safety Week and strengthening Brake’s campaign for safer roads. We’ve designed this year’s theme to be action-orientated. Everyone – individuals, businesses, schools and community organisations – can make and share the Brake Pledge. Brake is working for safe, sustainable, healthy and fair transport. Brake supports a vision zero approach, which places the emphasis on systems to save lives and the planet, such as 20mph limits in towns and segregated routes for people on foot and bicycles. We know it is challenging to change road users’ behaviour and humans make mistakes and some knowingly take risks. However, the deaths and injuries are happening right now, this week, and everyone can do their bit today by spreading awareness of the vital importance of the Pledge rules: slow down; never drink or take drugs or use a mobile when driving; always wear a seat belt; get eyesight tested; and minimise driving.”
For media enquiries, interviews with Brake, and to find out about regional Road Safety Week launch events across the UK, contact news@brake.org.uk.
Find out more about Road Safety Week and the Brake Pledge. Tweet your support: @Brakecharity, #RoadSafetyWeek, #brakepledge.
Brake
Brake is a national road safety charity that exists to stop the needless deaths and serious injuries that happen on roads every day, make streets and communities safer for everyone, and care for families bereaved and injured in road crashes. Brake promotes road safety awareness, safe and sustainable road use, and effective road safety policies. We do this through national campaigns, community education, services for road safety professionals and employers, and by coordinating the UK's flagship road safety event every November, Road Safety Week. Brake is a national, government-funded provider of support to families and individuals devastated by road death and serious injury, including through a helpline and support packs.
Brake was founded in the UK in 1995, and now has domestic operations in the UK and New Zealand, and works globally to promote action on road safety.
Road crashes are not accidents; they are devastating and preventable events, not chance mishaps. Calling them accidents undermines work to make roads safer, and can cause insult to families whose lives have been torn apart by needless casualties.
Road Safety Week
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 2016 took place 21-27 November, with support from the Department for Transport and sponsors Specsavers and Aviva.