06 January 2012

Brake, the road safety charity
T: 01484 559909 E: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Brake, the road safety charity, is urging nursery schools, play groups, childminders and KS1 teachers to help save little lives by promoting road safety through a Beep Beep! Day. Beep Beep! Days can be run on any day of your choice and aim to teach simple road safety lessons to under-8s while raising awareness about road safety among parents and in local communities.

Beep Beep! Day, now in its ninth year, is organised by Brake in partnership with Churchill Car Insurance to help reduce the unacceptable number of children killed and injured on our roads each year. Every week, a shocking 48 children under 16 are killed or seriously injured on Britain's roads [1].

In 2011, around 20,000 children took part in a Beep Beep! Day. Brake hopes to reach even more in 2012 thanks to the commitment and energy of child-carers and teachers.

Brake offers a wealth of advice on how to run fun road safety activities during their Beep Beep! Day. Activities can include making a giant poster of hand prints with a title 'We hold hands!', doing experiments with toy cars, singing road safety songs and even baking traffic light biscuits. All activities are designed to teach children key words and get them starting to think about the basics of staying safe.

All participants get free resources to support their day and promote road safety to parents, including stickers for children, colour-in sheets, and sponsorship envelopes to raise money for Brake. Every penny raised goes towards Brake's work supporting families bereaved and injured by road crashes, and campaigning to make roads safer for families across the UK.

Brake also works to generate local media coverage of Beep Beep! Days, promoting the importance of drivers slowing down to protect local families, by issuing press releases (with educators' permission).

Katie Shephard, fundraising director at Brake, said: "It is never too young to start learning about road safety; for example learning key words such as 'stop' and the importance of holding hands. Beep Beep! Day is a great opportunity to teach these life-saving messages to children and also get the message across to parents, who need to understand the importance of belting up children safely and driving slowly. It's also a wonderful opportunity to raise funds for Brake and our work supporting families bereaved by road crashes and campaigning for road safety in communities. The charity is heavily reliant on donations and we are enormously grateful to participants who help us in this way."

Tony Chilcott, head of Churchill Car Insurance says: "Beep Beep! Day is an excellent way to teach young children about road safety, and the scheme also raises awareness amongst all drivers, including parents and grandparents, of the need to drive with extreme care when young children are about. We're pleased to be able to support such a worthwhile initiative."

Jane Cooper, of Busy Bees Nursery, who ran an event in 2011 says: "Holding a Beep Beep Day really helped us communicate vitally important road safety messages to the children. Brake provided all the support and resources we needed to run a really fun and informative event and we will definitely be running another one this year – I urge all pre-school and key stage 1 educators to get involved and help save lives!"

For more information, go to www.beepbeepday.org.uk. To register, contact the Beep Beep! team at Brake on 01484 559909 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your name, the name of your organisation, and day-time telephone number.

For media queries contact Katie Shephard at Brake on 01484 55063 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Notes for Editors

Brake is an independent road safety charity. Brake exists to stop the five deaths and 65 serious injuries that happen on UK roads every day and to care for families bereaved and seriously injured in road crashes. Brake runs awareness-raising campaigns, community education programmes, events such as Road Safety Week (19-25 November 2012), and a Fleet Safety Forum scheme, providing advice to companies. Brake's support division cares for road crash victims through a helpline and other services.

Churchill

Founded in 1989, Churchill is now one of the UK's leading providers of general insurance, offering car, home, travel and pet insurance cover over the phone or on-line.

Churchill is part of RBS Insurance, the number one car and home insurer in the UK (based on policies in force 2010) and is wholly owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Customers can find out more about Churchill products or get a quote by calling 0800 200300 or visiting www.churchill.com

Churchill insurance policies are underwritten by U K Insurance Limited, Registered office: The Wharf, Neville Street, Leeds LS1 4AZ. Registered in England and Wales no 1179980. U K Insurance Limited are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

[1] Road Casualties Great Britain 2010, Department for Transport 2011