It is finally here!

After six months in the making, Road Safety Smart Ltd is pleased to launch its new community road safety initiative ROAD SMART.

The website can be found here.

I have learned a lot over the 21 years as a collision investigator and I felt it was time that I gave something back. I wanted to share what I have learned over these years to help everyone be better informed and aware of the consequences with regard to the most dangerous activity they will ever do – driving!

Quality resources

The website has a range of support material ranging from videos, graphics and PDF documents. All of these provide various educational materials targeted at different driver groups, including community support to set up local road safety initiatives, as well as resources for schools, parents and ADIs.

I was very fortunate to be part of a panel discussion with regards to road safety at last year’s ADIJNC National Conference. During the session, one of the delegates advised that they fully endorsed the need for educating students about road safety, but they did not know what information to look for, or where to find it.

Those conference comments have been the main driving force behind developing this website.

Now ADIs have a central point of educational material that they can draw on. Not only will this enhance the learning experience for their students, but they will be able to direct students to specific web links to reinforce their learnings from their most recent lesson. The ADIs can then start the following lesson with a discussion about the learnings from the website.

What is even better, all the material on the site is free to use at any time.

 

Driving instructor ready

ADIs will need to spend some time to get to know what material is in the ‘Smart Zone’ on the website.

Filters have been added to the website to make it easier for ADIs to obtain specific material relevant to them under the ‘Young Drivers & Driving Schools’ tab.

It has to be made clear that the style and reader accessibility of material varies considerably, with some information and videos being quite quirky and funny while others are more direct and detailed.

The information comes from various sources – employers, individual drivers, road safety partnerships and road safety campaigns. The available information will continue to grow over the coming months and years.

 

Looking forward to safer drivers

I really do hope that the website will provide ADIs with the support they have been looking for and put a bit more detail behind the science of road safety. This will help students understand that driving really is the most dangerous activity they will ever do, even if they are doing it everyday.

In order to extend the reach to your younger drivers, Road Smart will be publishing regular posts on its social media sites via, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Twitter. Please follow us on your social media to help spread the word about road safety, and why not share with your pupils.

We would like to thank John Parry of Parry’s Driver Training and Mike Yeomans, Director Motor Schools Association of Great Britain Ltd, for their support in setting up this Road Smart website. Both are continuing their support and have become ‘Smart Partners’.

If you would like your organisation to become a Smart Partner too, with a link directly to your website, then please forward your logo to me at [email protected]. Why not join the growing list who have already shown their support.

 

Andrew Drewary is the Managing Director at Road Safety Smart.

If you want to know more about the subjects covered in this article, do not hesitate to contact Andrew Drewary at [email protected] or call him on 07817 043821.