Scotland scores a royal hat-trick for road safety
Scotland receives triple honours in the Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards 2010.
The Royal Awards celebrate achievements made in road safety, and are presented annually to the most outstanding examples of innovation across the world.
The Scottish winners are:
Road Safety Scotland (RSS)
RSS won a special award to mark its 25th year of working to make Scotland’s roads safer. Formed initially to work on the 1986 European Year of Road Safety, RSS has developed a reputation for outstanding quality in its education and publicity resources, which are used throughout Scotland.
Working with key partners in both the public and private sector, road casualties have fallen dramatically during its 25 years of existence, with 2009 seeing the lowest figures for deaths and serious injuries on Scotland’s roads since the current records began 50 years ago.
Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS)
ACPOS won the award with a number of partners for a unique drink-drive campaign, launched in December 2009. It used existing laws to seize the vehicles of repeat drink-drive offenders, and significantly reduced the number of people driving under the influence.
In the four-week festive period of 2009/10, the number of recorded drunk-drivers in Scotland fell by 25%, compared to the same period in 2008/09. The campaign initially ran for five weeks. Following a review, the partners agreed to continue it indefinitely. Public opinion polls show 82% of people want the initiative to be permanent.
Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and Driving Standards Agency (DSA)
The SQA and DSA won their Award for creating the Safe Road User Award (SRUA).
The SRUA’s purpose is to improve road safety as part of the secondary school curriculum. It focuses on positive attitudes to using roads safely and prepares young people to be independent travellers. It lets young people explore the impact of how they interact with other road users, and gives them the confidence to make safe and responsible decisions in all aspects of road use.
The course was piloted in Balwearie High School. Following its success, the SQA and DSA are working with 266 more centres to offer the SRUA across the country.
All three awards were presented by HRH Prince Michael GCVO, on Wednesday 27 October, at the Road Safety Scotland Annual Seminar 2010, Dunblane Hydro.
Read the press release.