New road safety campaign focuses on speed.
24 Jan 2005

A West Midland road safety organization today unveiled a campaign aimed at warning drivers of the dangers of travelling too fast.

The campaign, which includes a series of three radio commercials running on Heart FM, along with billboards and posters throughout the region, highlights the choices drivers can make on their day-to-day journeys.

The West Midlands Casualty Reduction Partnership (WMCRP), who has developed the campaign, interviewed more than 1000 35-50 year old male motorists to understand the reasons they speed. One of the main reasons given was the view that speed limits are out of date and no longer relevant. However, Adam Warwick, Communications Manager for WMCRP stressed that speed limits are in place for a good reason;

"Research by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has shown that the likelihood of being involved in a crash increases with your speed. The main issue we identified in our research is that quite often people speed because they are unaware of the speed limit. Not many drivers look at their Highway Code, once they've passed their test, and consequently set their own speed limit when driving. The danger with this is that we're not all as good drivers as we think we are, and many times we need guidance as to the best speed for a stretch of road."

The campaign is aimed at 35-50yr old male drivers because they have been identified as the group most likely to have penalty points on their licence for speeding. Mr. Warwick stressed that the campaign is not attempting to preach to motorists, but rather advise them that sometimes drivers can make the wrong decisions.

"99% of the time you might travel down the road well above the speed limit, get to where you're going on time, and there's no harm done. But each year on the nations roads more than 430 people are killed and 4000 seriously injured in collisions where speed was a contributing factor—that's 85 people each week just like you and me. We need to move away from the ‘it'll never happen to me' mentality, and start thinking 'what if?'"

Billboard designs