EU ROAD SAFETY PLAUDITS
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• Portuguese haulier Transportes Bizarr() Duarte won the 2009 Excellence in Road Safety Award for the category of small and medium-sized enterprises. The awards arise from the European Road Safety Charter, part of the European Road Safety Action programme 2011-20.
The company's 27 HGVs cover 2,5 million km a year on European roads.
Transportes Bizarro Duarte has made several safety commitments over a three-year period. These include driving behaviour training for its 29 drivers and a 'Driver of the Month' award based on fuel consumption, tyre condition and accident rate. The company has had an average of six accidents a year for the past three years it aims to reduce that to three a year by 2011.
• The Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service scooped the award in the category of institutions. The service's safety plan includes publicity messages on its fire appliances, which are aimed at improving driver behaviour.
For example, working with local authority partners and the police, it offers cycling proficiency courses, a vehicle crime course aimed at young offenders, and a campaign for safer motorcycling.
The European Road Safety Charter was launched last summer and UK signatories include: 3M; ADTC Driver Development; construction group Bethell, British Gas; the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association: M&G Vehicle Hire; and builders' merchants Wolseley. All these organisations have made a three-year pledge to beef up their safety regimes.
At the charter's launch Paul Clark, the minister responsible for road safety, stressed the importance of pursuing road safety "Our long-term goal is to make Britain's roads the safest in Europe. Most people have been affected by a road accident. We must never become complacent; although deaths have fallen, people still lost their lives on Britain's roads last year. We need better education, enforcement and engineering," he said.
Clark said the government had got the balance right with enforcement, including extra funding for VOSA, and manufacturers were making vehicles safer. The next step was safer road engineering. "Simple changes to road layout and design can inspire safety, so risk data is being gathered for all UK motorways." More information: http://ec-europa.eullroad_safety/ www.erscharter.eud