The theme of Road Safety Week 2023 is Let's talk about SPEED. Brake is hosting a national conversation to find out what people think about traffic speed. We are trying to find out why, when five people die on UK roads every day, so many people still think it's ok to speed.
Click on the links below for ideas and activities to help you:
- Shout out for road safety in your community
- Manage driver speed
- Get people talking - top tips for a good conversation
- Fundraise for Brake - take part in the #Brake5 Challenge
What else can I do?
Go to resources for everyone for more free resources to help you take part in Road Safety Week, including posters, films, stopping distances calculator, images to share on social media and more.
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Shout out for road safety in your community
Highlight the work you do to call for safer roads, prevent crashes caused by your vehicles and make sure your employees always get home safely.
- Use the Road Safety Week toolkit and speed infographic to talk about what you are doing to support the campaign throughout the week. Share important facts about speed and the dangers of driving too fast for road conditions on social media.
- Use Brake's resources for educators to talk about speed and road safety in local schools.
- Include an article about road safety in your newsletter, blog or social media feed, to raise awareness of the impact of road crashes on communities.
- Print and display free Road Safety Week posters around company premises. Or share posters and infographics on your website or social media pages.
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Manage driver speed
Driving for work is one of the most dangerous thing you ask your employees to do. This Road Safety Week, help your drivers understand the risks associated with driving too fast and take action to protect themselves and others.
- Review your vehicle procurement policies – are you buying the safest vehicles with lifesaving features to help drivers keep within speed limits? Do your drivers understand the technology their vehicles are fitted with.
- Review schedules and routes – make sure your drivers aren’t being encouraged to speed to meet targets. Where possible, plan routes that avoid places where people walk and cycle.
- Use free resources from Global Fleet Champions to learn about more ways to manage driver speed.
Online driver training
Use our online driver training programme to help your drivers understand six key areas of road risk and ask them to pledge to drive safely.
The training will take about an hour to complete and at the end drivers can print a certificate to show that they have completed training.
Use this online driver training programme to help your drivers understand six key areas of road risk and ask them to pledge to drive safely.
Online driver training
(opens in new window)
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Let's talk about SPEED
If you want to start a conversation about speed but you’re not sure where to begin, here are some ideas to get you started…
We all drive too fast sometimes… perhaps because we’re in a rush to get somewhere, or we’re unaware of the speed limit. Maybe we didn’t notice that our speed had crept up. Sometimes people speed because they enjoy driving fast or because there aren’t many other vehicles on the road.
But every time we break the speed limit, or drive too fast or the road conditions, we increase the risk of a crash, and we increase the risk that someone will be killed or hurt on a road.
Here are Brake's top tips for a good conversation
- Be inclusive – we all speed sometimes, even when we try really hard not to.
- Ask open questions – what do you think about 20 mph speed limits. How does fast traffic make you feel?
- Focus on the positives – everyone can do something that will make a difference.
- Don’t blame or shame – instead ask how we might be able to do things differently.
- Listen and be respectful – everyone is entitled to have an opinion, even if you don’t agree with it.
- Keep it simple – Avoid jargon, acronyms and unnecessary technical language. If we drive fast, it takes longer to stop. We are more likely to hurt or even kill someone if we hit them.
- Teach someone something new – Use some road safety facts. Many new cars can help you keep within speed limits – can your car do this?
Brake took to the streets to ask people what they think about traffic speed and speed limits. Opinions expressed are those of the individuals shown and do not reflect the policy of Brake or other organisations associated with Road Safety Week.
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Take part in the #Brake5 Challenge
The #Brake5 Challenge for Road Safety Week is a fun fundraiser based around the number 5 to raise awareness that five people die on UK roads every day.
You can create your own active challenge centred around the number 5 – run, walk, cycle or swim any distance from five to 555 miles, depending on your ability and ambitions! Get 5 or 55 colleagues together in a team.
All money raised through the #Brake5 Challenge will help fund Brake’s campaign work and National Road Victim Service, which every year supports more than a thousand families affected by road death and injury.
Find out more and sign up to take part in the #Brake5 Challenge
