Today marks the start of “Road Safety Week”, which was founded by the road safety charity, Brake, “to raise awareness about road safety and promote steps that everyone can take to stop … needless deaths and injuries year-round”. Thompsons are proud of our close working relationship with Brake and entirely support their campaign. Whilst the campaign can feature a lot of fun activites, such as baking cakes, there is also a serious message behind it all: that is raising awareness about road safety through educating children about the dangers that roads present and adhering to traffic signals. After all, perhaps the most relevant statistic is that “every 30 seconds someone, somewhere in the world is killed in a road crash”.

To put that in perspective, in the time it took you to read this paragraph, at least one person will have been killed in a road crash case.  Think about that for a second and realise that it could be your mother, father, brother, sister, spouse, partner or child… Road crash cases do not discriminate. They can affect anyone at any time, regardless of age, gender, race or wealth. According to the World Health Organisation, an estimated 1.24 million people die every year on the world’s roads. That is very nearly a quarter of the population of Scotland being killed each year by road crash cases across the world.

Brake will be promoting road safety through the media and, as always, have a theme to their campaign. This year focuses on pledging to do six things to save lives based on six scenarios:

• Slow
• Sober
• Secure
• Silent
• Sharp
• Sustainable

For example, that focuses on encouraging people to commit to sticking to the speed limit, not drink driving, wearing a seatbelt, not using mobile telephones, having regular eye tests and reducing air pollution. All of those are six simple things, which if adhered to, would have a positive effect on reducing the number of road crash cases in the UK and worldwide.

Brake are doing a great job in promoting road safety and we would strongly urge you to get involved whether it is through fundraising, doing an activity at work or even just making the Brake Pledge. With your help and support, let’s put road crash cases in the rear view mirror.

Blog by Ross Waddell