Road safety roadshow seen at national conference

Wiltshire’s flagship road safety programme has been seen by a national audience.

Safe Drive Stay Alive formed part of this year’s National Association of Police Fleet Managers’ conference, held in Cheltenham on 3 September.

The conference was attended by representatives from the police, fire and rescue services, the military police, local government and private companies such as the RAC.

Safe Drive Stay Alive is a hard-hitting presentation that combines video footage with personal testimonies from people directly affected by road traffic collisions, including bereaved parents, those injured on the roads, police officers, firefighters and paramedics.

The scheme is led and primarily co-ordinated by Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service, and is well supported by other major partners, including Wiltshire Police, Swindon Borough Council, Great Western Ambulance Service, Wiltshire County Council’s road safety unit, Roadpeace and road safety charity Brake.

Last year, the roadshow was seen by some 8,000 16-17 year olds across Wiltshire and Swindon and the 2008 schools programme starts on 29 September.

Comments from those attending last week’s conference included:

• “Very impressive, cannot help but be moved by the presentation” – Gloucestershire Police
• “Very, very powerful, thought-provoking” – Auto Windscreens
• “An excellent presentation, very hard hitting and effective. It has also given me food for thought when doing defensive driver training” – Advanced Drivers’ Institute
• “Must be seen in every school, powerful, enormous impact” – RAC

Ian Hopkins, Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service’s road safety manager, said: “The presentation we gave at this conference was exactly as we would present to young people, so the positive feedback was excellent. The Safe Drive roadshow is successful because it is real, it is emotional and it shows how one person’s actions can devastate the lives of many other people.”

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