Founded in 1997 by road safety charity, Brake, Road Safety Week is the UK's biggest road safety event. The aim of this week is to increase awareness about road safety and promote simple steps that everyone, even non-drivers, can take to stop the needless deaths and injuries that take place on our roads. This year, Road Safety Week is taking place between 21st and 27th November.
Every year Road Safety Week has a theme to focus its media campaign around and this year the theme is the Make the Brake Pledge.
Every action and decision that we take, as a driver or a passenger, has the power to change the outcome of a journey and the life of a family. By changing our driving behaviour, we can help to make our city, town and village roads safer places to be.
Brake are asking everyone to make the Brake Pledge and share it online to demonstrate their commitment to saving lives and keeping the roads safe. There are six elements to the Brake Pledge:
Slow: Drivers should stick to or stay under speed limits. When around schools, homes and shops you should slow down to 20mph to protect others. Breaking the speed limit or travelling too fast for the conditions is recorded by police at crash scenes as a contributory factor in more than a quarter of fatal crashes in Great Britain.
Sober: Drivers should commit to never driving after drinking any alcohol or taking any drugs. Even though we have a legal blood-alcohol limit in the UK, one in ten drivers/motorcycle riders killed in a crash had alcohol present in their body (stats from 2013). Having just a single drink will have an affect on your ability to drive. One in seven road deaths are at the hands of someone driving while over the limit.
Secure: Drivers should ensure that everyone in their vehicle is wearing a seat belt on every journey and children that are smaller than 135cm are in a proper child restraint. Some drivers and passengers still see seat belts as an inconvenience, but the chances of dying in a crash are reduced by 50% if you're wearing one.
Silent: Drivers will not take or make calls; read or type while driving. Mobile phones and similar devices should be hands-free or out of reach so you can stay focused on the road. Statistically, drivers who perform a complex secondary task while driving are three-times more likely to crash than non-distracted drivers.
Sharp: Drivers should never drive tired and ensure that they take regular brakes during long journeys. You should get your eyes tested every two years (maximum) and wear glasses or contact lenses while driving if necessary. Road crashes caused by poor driver vision are estimated to cause 2,900 casualties per year in the UK.
Sustainable: Everyone should commit to driving or using a car less (unless it's an electric car producing zero emissions). Oil-fueled cars are a burden on the environment and impact the quality of air that everyone is forced to breath. By minimising the amount we drive through walking, cycling or using public transport, we are doing our best for the environment and our individual health as well as making our communities safer places to live. Of the 29,000 deaths per year from particulate matter pollution in the UK, 5,000 of them are attributable to road transport.
Click here to make your pledge.