• Bob Brearley, managing director of Srn and Parkes Ltd,
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is one of those unflappab phlegmatic characters who is rare enou today to be interesting. Bob Brearley's ca approach to life was amply illustrated t week when his plans for the ten presentation of the Don Safety Trophy had be rejigged at the last minute. It had bet arranged that the Minister for Transpc Industries, John Peyton, would present tl trophy to Sir Archibald Ross, chairman SAAB (UK) Ltd, following lunch. TI presentation was to have been preceded by short speech from the chairman of the par of judges, Lord Chesham PC. Lord Chesha was unavoidably absent on duty abroad at because of the disrupted railway services t Minister was standing by to introdu emergency measures for transport at moment's notice. Within minutes of receivii the news Bob Brearley had rearranged programme and faced his guests calm al unruffled.
Unflappability is of course, an essent characteristic in the make up of a man who involved in road safety matters. He must le a calm, reasoned and calculating life. II Brearley does just that. He refused to bulldozed into believing that all that is ma in Europe is superior to the homespun artii in safety engineering, and while not convinced that we have reached the pinnai of efficiency he is satisfied we are as good and in many cases better than, o Continental counterparts in this field. "A every day", he said "we make steady progrE towards maximum efficiency."
It is his belief for example that motorvv signalling systems such as those now hei inaugurated (CM March 31) are the answer what John Peyton describes as "routi carnage." Bob Brearley is not a man to hurried: behind all his dialogue is cli thinking.
As a soldier he served with the Ro' Engineers Parachute Battalion. In civilian I he has been a production manager, a wo engineer and a management consultant. seems that he has never found himself in unenviable role of a square peg in a rot hole, He is proud of his former schc Manchester Grammar, from where he mm on to Manchester University,
A married man with two sons he folio what many consider two of the pursuits a well-balanced man — cricket and sailing. E Brearley gives the impression :that his CE and balanced approach to road safety is technique which will get results in the end.