In 2011, Gloucestershire Police issued 1,196 tickets for using a mobile phone whilst driving.

The advice from Gloucestershire Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) is:

• Switch off your phone before you start your engine – no phone call can ever be worth putting your life or someone else at risk.
• Using a mobile phone when driving means you are four times more likely to crash. Your reaction times are affected, and even if you are hands-free, you are still distracted by the conversation.
• Never make or answer a phone call when driving, or attempt to send a text message.
• Callers have a role to play too, if you know someone is driving, do not attempt to call and distract them.
• However tempting, wait until you are parked safely before you read text messages or make calls on mobile phones
• The advice is simple – if you have a mobile phone, switch off before you drive off.

Are you a parent, grandparent, carer, teacher, or someone who works with a children’s group? If so, why not join the Gloucestershire Road Safety Partnership in supporting the Week…. and take some time to look at child safety.

Get involved: you could choose one or all of the following ideas to involve your children:

• Monday - Sign up to join our FREE on-line resource centre and download or order materials for use with age ranges between 0-18 years old;        
• Tuesday - Contact us for a personalised ‘Keep off the Zig Zag lines’ template, to encourage safe parking around school. This can also be attached to parent’s newsletters. 
• Wednesday - Produce your very own ‘eco’ poster to encourage safe walking and cycling activities. Keeping both children and the environment healthy.
• Thursday – Promote a ‘cycle to school/work’ day for all. We can offer advice and support for all cycling events. 
• Friday - Download our advice and promotional material on child seat belts and help improve the safety of young car passengers.

We look forward to your involvement during the week and will be interested to know how our ideas, and your own, have worked. We are here to offer support and advice so please contact us should you need to.

For other ideas and to see the official website, see: http://www.capt.org.uk/

• Planning your journey – what to pack
• What to do if you get into trouble – calling for help
• Maintaining your vehicle – essential checks
• Adjusting your driving conditions
• Driving on icy and slushy roads
• Driving in fog
• Winter sun
• Flooded roads.

For the full PDF fact sheet, click here.

• We’re giving a presentation to 29th Regiment at South Cerney, and introducing a new weapon to the British Army, which kills many hundreds of people each year – driving whilst impaired
• We’ll be attending a mini fresher’s fayre at the Royal Forest of Dean College, where our road safety officers will be giving advice and information about safer moped riding, in-car safety, distraction, and drink and drugs
• We’ll be delivering cycle training to primary and secondary pupils at various schools around the county
• The safety camera vans will be out and about around the county, enforcing speeds and checking for hand held mobile phone offences
• We’ll be presenting our findings from a series of focus groups with young people, to the Youth Parliament who are working with us to create a series of campaigns for young people
• We’ll be attending a youth group meeting to help them progress their cycle safety DVD, and to advise on a workshop to make hi-viz, protective clothing, cooler!
• There are educational courses happening most days this week, including speed awareness, driver improvement, an evening drink drive rehabilitation course, plus Safer Driving with Age assessments and taxi driver assessments
• Some of our cycling instructors will be receiving training to national standards to enable them to deliver Bikeability – a training scheme for all ages and abilities.

To learn more about the work of the Partnership, please feel free to contact us. 

Recognising that 16-19 year olds represent one of the most vulnerable age groups, with driver, passenger and moped casualties all peaking within this age band, the Youth Parliament invited schools to be part of small focus group sessions (10-12 young people) to discuss the issues, gain their thoughts on current road safety campaigns and listen to concerns they may have as all types of road user.

The sessions were designed by the Road Safety Partnership and took place at sixth forms and further education colleges across the county. Each session was led by a member of the Youth Parliament and supported by the Youth Support service. The groups featured a mixture of fun and interactive exercises, with the ultimate goal of creating an impactful and relevant, countywide road safety campaign aimed at 16-19 year olds.

A full report will be produced shortly, but early analysis shows some consistent key themes and behaviours which we’d like to address.

Sadly, young people are still over-represented in casualties on our roads, and they are most vulnerable as new drivers, passengers of new drivers, and as moped riders.  We’re spending a few days in September attending college fresher’s fayres and chatting to young people about the risks they face.

We’ll be asking them whether they make decisions using their head or their heart – and we’ll have experts on hand to chat about the potential benefits and consequences of doing so. We’ll also be asking them to record their thoughts and feelings on our specially-designed graffiti walls.

We’ve also set up a group on Facebook called ‘Head or Heart?’ where young people can have a look at the photos taken at the events and see whether they make it on to our freshers’ gallery. Facebook is great way for us to provide potentially life-saving advice and information to them in the future.

We hope this simple campaign will encourage young people to think more carefully about their actions and the actions of others to prevent yet more tragedy on our roads.

The event was hosted by Gloucester South Police Safer Community Team, and road safety officers Rosemary Bailey and Sarah Laming who attended the two day event said, “we were able to speak with over 250 pupils about the issue they currently face and the issues they will face as they become the drivers of the future. It was a very worthwhile event.”

Sheila Corkett, the Partnership Manager said: “Motorists and horse riders both have a right to use the road, especially in a rural county like ours, so it is all road users’ responsibility to keep safe. Mutual courtesy and care between motorists and riders is important to prevent confrontation and improve safety.”

Horse sense for motorists:

• Look out for horses being led or ridden on the road
• At left hand bends and on narrow country roads take extra care and keep our speed down
• When you see a horse rider on the road – slow down
• When approaching from behind a horse rider give them plenty of room and be ready to stop
• When overtaking, pass wide and slow. Do not sound your horn, rev your engine or accelerate rapidly once you have passed them as horses are easily scared by noise and may panic around fast moving vehicles
• Look out for horses turning right. Riders keep to the left even when turning right as it would not be safe to position their horse in the centre of the road
• Beware of horses on roundabouts. Riders will signal right at exits they do not intend to take and signal left at the exit they want
• Horse riders are often children, so take extra care and remember riders may ride in double file when escorting a young or inexperienced horse or rider

Riders should always wear the correct protective headgear and fluorescent/reflective accessories so that they can been seen at all times.

For more information, see our Fact Sheet