Press release
New air freshener
campaign to remind road users to stay safe
Our
new road safety campaign will urge drivers to “Belt up. Hang up. Ease up.”
every time they step inside their vehicle.
We’re offering free air fresheners for members of the public, with
each featuring a simple message to give people pause for thought before they
set off on their journey. The air fresheners are jasmine-scented, feature a red
outline to represent a “stop” sign, and three icons representing each theme,
along with the slogan.
On
far too many occasions, we witness first-hand the devastating consequences that
speeding, using a mobile phone at the wheel, or failing to wear a seatbelt can
have.
Research
shows:
· You are four times
more likely to be in a crash if you use your phone, and reactions two times
slower if you text and drive than if you drink drive;
· This increases to 3
times if you use a handheld phone;
· You are twice as
likely to die if you don’t wear a seat belt, and people are less likely to use
seat belts on short or familiar journeys;
· If someone drives
more than 10 to 15% above the average speed of the traffic around them, they
are much more likely to be involved in an accident.
It is
launched today (Wednesday 29th) by
Lincolnshire Police and the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership to encourage
people to take responsibility for safer driving as the nights get darker.
The air
fresheners can be collected from the front desk at police stations in
Boston, Grantham, Skegness, South Park, Gainsborough, Horncastle, Spalding,
Stamford, Holbeach, and Louth, and local PCSO and officers in the Neighbourhood
Policing Teams will hand them out where possible.
Chief
Inspector in Specialist Operations, Ian Richardson, said: “Road safety starts
with the person behind the wheel, and if we can get those driving on our roads
to pay attention to these very simple road safety messages, we might find that
we have fewer serious or fatal collisions to attend.
“Even
careful drivers can be distracted by a call or text, and just a split-second
lapse in concentration could result in a crash. The higher the speed, the
longer it takes to identify and react to what is happening around
you, and crucially, the longer it takes to stop. And seatbelts are a pretty simple one; if you are involved in a
collision, do you want yourself or you passengers safely strapped in, or
smashing into seats in front, the dashboard, or travelling through the nearest
window onto the road?
“Our
ultimate goal is to make Lincolnshire – and that includes its road network –
one of the safest places to live, work and visit, and we hope this campaign
will go some way to achieving that.”
The
campaign follows a successful bumper sticker initiative earlier this year,
which encouraged people to pick up a bumper sticker which featured
a reminder to follow the speeding. Data showed that in the two weeks
before the campaign, there were 126 speeding offences, which dropped to 51
offences during the campaign, and saw a sustained drop in the two weeks after.
Steve Batchelor from the Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership, added:
“We have decided to follow a similar approach to this campaign because we’ve
seen that engaging with people directly, and having them participate in the
road safety message, works.
“Keeping
our road network safe is our main priority as we know that using a mobile phone
is still sadly something that happens too often, ever though the law is clear
that it’s illegal, and people will still speed or not wear their seatbelt
without thinking of the consequences.
“We’re
hopeful this campaign will be really well engaged with, and we’ll see a
difference in the number of collisions as a result.”
If you
have information about poor or illegal driving, you can call 999 in an
emergency or report here: https://www.lincs.police.uk/reporting-advice/driving-roads-and-vehicles/report-a-driving-offence/
ENDS