Driving instructor training aids and business products provider, Ideas4ADIs, has partnered with Brake, the road safety charity to develop a new guide for driving instructors to use with their pupils.

Overtaking, a guide written specifically for young drivers, will be included in Brake’s pack for Buddy Driving Instructors, a scheme which is open for any driving instructor to join.

Ideas4ADIs developed the guide with the aim of providing the instructor with a teaching aid which shows young and inexperienced drivers the dangers of overtaking, and the possible consequences. It includes a case study from Brake of Emma, Kate and Beccy, who were hit by a young driver overtaking at speed. 

The Buddy Driving Instructor Scheme aims to help young people understand the grave dangers of driving and educate them about driving responsibly. Driving instructors who sign up are given a range of resources including the overtaking guide to distribute to clients, and use as a prompt for discussing road and driver safety.

Driving instructors are asked for a £25 donation to join the scheme. As a member they will be provided with enough resources for 25 clients, and a year’s FREE subscription to Brake’s Road Safety Forum (worth £47), giving them the regular e-bulletin Target Zero, as well as discounts at Brake events. Instructors can recoup their costs by asking their next 25 clients for a £1 donation in return for the resources.

Instructors who join the scheme before the 30^th September will automatically be entered into a free prize draw to win great prizes for them and their pupils, including a year’s subscription to ADI News, Alcosense portable breathalysers, subscriptions to www.passyourtestonline.co.uk, and Ideas4ADIs ADI Lesson Presenter DVDs.

Mac McDade, Director of Ideas4ADIs said: “We are proud to support Brake and the great work they do. Developing training aids is what we do, so it made sense for us to produce this guide. Instructors can sometimes struggle to get the ‘safety’ message across to pupils who just want to get their licence; this pack will help them do this and hopefully save lives.”

Caroline Perry, Marketing Manager at Brake, said “Brake is delighted to be working with Ideas4ADIs on this new resource. Deaths and injuries on roads caused by young drivers devastate families and communities. By using this fantastic guide and the other resources in the pack, driving instructors can help educate young people about driving responsibly, change attitudes and save lives in the process.”

More information on the Buddy Driving Instructor Scheme is available at www.brake.org.uk.

To join the Buddy Driving Instructor scheme (£25) contact Brake on 01484 559909 or admin@brake.org.uk.

For media enquiries contact Caroline Perry on 01484 550068 or cperry@brake.org.uk

Keep Speed in Sport says road safety charity and transport research body

As the sporting season hots up, Brake, the road safety charity, backed by sporting celebrities, is calling on sports lovers who drive to keep speed in sport and off the roads.

A worrying minority of high profile sports people, often footballers, are sometimes sadly in the media spotlight for the wrong reason:  driving offences, most frequently speeding and often in high performance cars.

This sad abuse of power, particularly by role models admired by young people, has prompted Brake to ask TRL, the Transport Research Laboratory to try to demonstrate the power of speed in terms that may drive home the danger to some sports lovers.

20mph is fast enough around homes and schools. At this speed a driver could stop in time if a child ran out three car lengths ahead (about 12 metres).  But a car driven at 30mph would hit the child at about 27mph. A child hit at 27mph is the equivalent of a child falling backwards out the window of a three storey house (a drop of about 7.3 metres).

The energy of the collision between a car and a child at this speed, says TRL, is equivalent to:

• about 18 times that of a world class golfer’s drive
• about eight times that of a world class footballer’s free kick
• about 20 times that of a world class tennis player’s serve

Ellen Booth, campaigns officer at Brake, says: “Many people have an intention to abide by speed limits but then don’t, and many people who do stick to speed limits think that 30mph is ‘slow enough’ because it is the limit on so many residential streets – but this is a limit that’s too fast. We are committed to convincing and reminding drivers to drive at 20 mph or lower around schools and homes. Explaining the power of speed is one way to help drivers do this. Just imagine a child being kicked in the head eight times by a world class footballer, and you get some sense of the horror.”

Dr Nick Reed, senior researcher from TRL, who calculated the energy in sports terms, says: “I was alarmed by the finding that a child hit at 27mph was equivalent to a child falling backwards out the window of a three storey house. I wondered if there were other analogies that may help people understand just how dangerous it is to be driving at 30mph in residential streets should the worst happen. Many will marvel at the capabilities of international sports stars over the summer. It is startling to realise that the energy of the impact between a car and a child would be so many times greater than that applied to a drive by the world’s best golfers, a serve by the world’s best tennis players or a free kick by the world’s best footballers. Keep speed in sport and keep our roads safe.”

Sports personalities back Brake’s campaign Keep Speed in Sport:

Broadcaster and World Cup presenter Adrian Chiles says: “I am proud to help pledge my support to the life-saving work that Brake does. As a dad, I urge all drivers to think about the safety of kids when they’re driving through a community. Everyone can help look out for our kids by slowing down - it’s a simple step, but a crucial one.”

Formula one racer Eddie Irvine says: “I get my kicks on the track not on the road. Speeding in built up areas puts children’s lives at risk.” 

Gold medal winning cyclist Nicole Cooke says:  “When I race all I think about is speed. But in sport, just like in every day life, I cannot go over the limit of what is safe because it may end in disaster, either in a crash or putting others in danger. Sport is a good outlet for energy and high speed, but speed is dangerous on public roads. I support Brake’s campaign to Keep Speed in Sport and off the roads.”

Paralympic gold medal winner Danny Crates says: “I was just 21 when I lost my arm in a road crash. Keep Speed in Sport.”

For interviews with Brake call 01484 550067 or for TRL call 01344 770141

Brake has today slammed the announcement by new UK transport minister Philip Hammond that the new government will not fund any more speed cameras and that it will tackle a 14 year ‘war’ on motorists. 

Brake chief executive Mary Williams OBE said: “Road death is the biggest killer of young people in the UK and there is a vast amount of data showing that cameras reduce speeds and save lives. Not only that, most people accept that they are a legitimate road safety measure, and communities are still crying out for them outside their schools and homes. With advances in technology, it is now possible to have digital cameras that track a vehicle’s speed between two fixed points on all kinds of roads, residential as well as rural, and it would be nothing short of a scandal if this life-saving technology sits on shelves rather than streets because of archaic political bias that isn’t even popular. Motorists are people who live in communities and have children and elderly relatives. It is no surprise therefore that most people who drive also support cameras, 20mph limits, and other measures to make our communities the thriving safe places they deserve to be. We need all these measures - engineering solutions and enforcement measures as well as driver education - to save as many lives as possible, not just some measures. This announcement is like a trip back to the dark ages - if camera numbers go into decline or fail to go up where they are so desperately needed then that will inevitably mean faster speeds and more blood on the streets that could have so easily been prevented, as well as fearful communities who are not prepared to risk their lives by walking or cycling.”

Register NOW for Brake’s one day seminar ‘Supporting suddenly bereaved children’, which is happening in Birmingham on 15 June 2010. Essential for anyone working with children. 

Go to http://www.brake.org.uk/supportingbereavedchildren or call Sue on 01484 559909 NOW!

Towns and villages still blighted by speed, finds research launched at London conference today

Charity plea for better driver understanding of the physics of speed

The majority of drivers admit to killer speeds in towns and villages, finds research launched today by the charity Brake at an international conference in London on speed this morning [Thursday 13 May]. 

Almost three quarters (72%) drivers surveyed by the road safety charity and motor insurer admitted driving at 35mph or faster in a 30mph zone. Half of these offenders (36%) admitted doing this daily or at least once a week.

Brake chief executive Mary Williams OBE says: “There appears to be widespread complacency among drivers who may think they will be able to stop in time if they are just going ‘a few’ miles over 30 – but the physics of speed tells us they won’t, and the casualty figures tell us they don’t. Many of these drivers wouldn’t dream of drink or drug driving, but are prepared to risk lives by speeding. There need to be more campaigns that explain to otherwise law-abiding citizens the exponentially damaging effects of increases in speed.”

Every day in Britain, eight children and young people (aged 0 – 19) are killed or seriously injured on foot or bicycles[1][1].

There is no safe speed at which you can hit someone on foot. A car is a one tonne chunk of metal that can cause death or serious injury at any speed. However, by driving slowly in communities we stand a much greater chance of stopping in time. As a driver’s speed rises, their stopping distances rise much quicker; stopping distances treble between 20mph and 40mph. At the conference, Williams will explain that:

A car driven at 20mph or lower (the maximum speed limit recommended by Brake for towns and villages) can stop in 12 metres (about three car lengths) or less, giving the driver a good chance to brake and stop in time if a child runs out ahead.

A car driven at 30mph would still be travelling at about 27mph at the 12 metre marker, and would take nearly double this distance (23 metres) to stop (about six car lengths). A child hit at 27mph is likely to suffer serious injury such as paralysis or brain injury, or die; this is the equivalent of a child falling backwards out the window of a three storey house (a drop of about 7.3m). 

A car driven at 36mph would still be travelling at about 35mph at the 12 metre marker, and would take two and half times this distance (about 30 metres) to stop (about seven and a half car lengths). A child hit at 35mph would almost certainly die or suffer very serious injury such as paralysis or brain injury; this is the equivalent of a child falling backwards off the balcony of a fifth floor apartment building onto concrete (a drop of about 12.6m).

20mph is the default urban limit in countries with significantly lower child pedestrian death rates, such as The Netherlands[2][2]. Brake is calling on the government to adopt the same limit in the UK.

Williams, who is speaking at the conference, said: “Anyone who can understand that it isn’t safe for a child to fall out the window of a three storey house can also understand that 30mph is too fast for communities. There is an urgent need for the default 30mph limit to be changed to 20, and we also want this research to act as a rallying cry to all drivers to take personal responsibility to stop the carnage on our streets by dropping their speed to 20 or lower in towns and villages. There is no excuse that bears scrutiny for faster speeds in communities. Imagine telling a mother whose son had been killed by you that you were in a rush, or felt under pressure from other drivers, or just weren’t concentrating, or thought your fabulously engineered brakes gave you permission to drive faster. All drivers have a duty to protect the lives of the vulnerable people who are a major part of the fabric of communities, particularly children, the elderly and the disabled, by slowing down. Children, the elderly, the disabled, or anyone else on foot or a bicycle may make a mistake, but they don’t deserve the death penalty or to spend the rest of their life in a wheelchair because of drivers’ speed.”

For more information, and interviews with Brake, call Ellen Booth on 01484 550067 or email news@brake.org.uk

[1] Reported Road Casualties Great Britain 2008, Table 7c, Department for Transport, 2009.

 [2] Reducing Child Deaths on European Roads, Road Safety Performance Index Flash 12, ETSC, 2009.

The learner driver is already hoping to book her next lesson, BSM said

A learner driver taking her second lesson managed to flip her instructor's car on to its roof in Oxford.

The woman, in her mid-20s, hit a gatepost on Old Road in Headington, causing the Fiat 500 car owned by driving instruction firm BSM to flip.

Paramedics treated the woman and the instructor for cuts to their hands and elbows at the scene of Sunday's crash.

BSM described the crash as a "freak incident" and said it took health and safety very seriously.

Communications manager Paul Shepherd said: "We have spoken to the learner driver who is fine and is already hoping to book her next lesson with us soon.

"The instructor responded calmly, professionally and swiftly, and is back on the road in a new car."

Russ Dunne, 30, of Old Road, was talking to a political candidate on his doorstep on the opposite side of the road when the crash happened.

He said: "I heard the car accelerating then I heard a loud bang when it hit the gatepost.

"I saw it roll on to its side and on to its roof. I hoped no-one was seriously injured and I was worried it would catch on fire if fuel was leaking."

Mr Dunne rushed over to help pull the learner driver out of the passenger window. The instructor had already managed to pull himself free.

"The instructor was very quiet and calm he just said 'accidents happen', but the driver was in real shock and kept saying she couldn't believe it."