A MESSAGE TO COMMUNITY GROUPS ACROSS ESSEX, SOUTHEND AND THURROCK
How can your Community Group help?
We need your community or group to help reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) on Essex roads. The Government have set local authorities targets to reduce the number of KSI's in 2008 to 799 in Essex, 69 in Southend on Sea and 88 in Thurrock.
Parish Council's and other community groups are ideally placed to help communities to help communicate road safety messages at a local level.
You will be very aware of the specific road safety problems and dangers within your own community and help to focus campaigns and initiatives towards the key issues in your area.
Schemes such as Community Speed Watch and 'Make the Commitment' have been very successful community projects.
Community Speed Watch
Community Speed Watch is a traffic monitoring scheme that is co-ordinated by the police but managed and run by volunteers in the community. The aim of the scheme is to address the problem of either real or perceived speeding.
What are the benefits?
*The chance to increase road safety
*Enhancing the role of community members as volunteers
*Fewer fatalities and serious injury collisions
*Increase links with the community
'Make the commitment'
Make the commitment is a community focused anti-speeding campaign led by Essex County Councilī's Road Safety Team and supported by Highways Engineers and Essex Police.
The Campaign asks you to make a personal written commitment to drive at an appropriate speed for the environment and road conditions and always within the legal speed limit. 'Make the Commitment' is part of the long team campaign to make speeding as socially unacceptable as drink driving.
The Essex Casualty Reduction Board has a range of display and promotional materials that are ideally suited for use at community events such as local meetings, fetes etc. The Board is keen to loan out these materials to help reinforce key road safety messages at events of this type. All campaign materials are provided free of charge and can include:
Posters
* Campaign leaflets
* Stickers
* Display boards
To find out more about current campaigns, the available materials and how they can be booked, ring 0845 603 7631.
The five main areas for campaigns that we need to tackle in order to reduce the number of casualties killed and seriously injured are:
* Seatbelt wearing
* Drinking and driving
* Speeding
* Young drivers
* Motorcyclists
Community groups and organisations can assist with publicising these campaigns by distributing and displaying posters and leaflets in local shops, post offices, community centres and other community gatherings - or even face to face with residents.
Face to face campaigns have the greatest level of success in terms of the number of people engaged and the ability to change attitudes or behaviour. It gives the local promoter a chance to explain the details of a campaign and the reasons why the particular road user group or behaviour being targeted needs to change.
Essex County Council's road safety team can also provide details of courses for improving the skills of all road users - from pedestrian and cyclist training to advanced drivers and riders.
Downloads
All files are in PDF format unless otherwise stated.
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