With more than 1,700 people dying on UK roads and 30,000 receiving serious life changing injuries every year, empowering people to drive wise and save lives is a key priority for us and we're once again supporting this year’s biggest annual road safety campaign, Road Safety Week, led by Brake.
Taking place until 23 November, we're promoting safe driving practices to our staff to enhance road safety awareness and behaviour, providing road safety merchandise to colleagues, and celebrating company driver safety achievements.
As an advocate for Brake’s Road Safety Week, we are:
- celebrating safe commuting: recognising and applauding colleagues for maintaining a strong safety record while commuting
- reinforcing the importance of continued vigilance in avoiding distractions while driving
- highlighting positive outcomes of proper driving and preparedness, including a company-wide culture of exemplary safety standards and carrying out thorough circle of inspection checks before and after driving for business.
Recently crowned winner of the Company Driver Safety Award at Brake’s UK Fleet Champions Awards 2024, we're proud of our driver safety record – echoed by us holding an Order of Distinction by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) for achieving twenty-three consecutive years of Gold safety awards in our North East licence area, and twenty years of Gold safety awards in our Yorkshire area - plus specialist Gold Awards for Fleet Safety in both licence areas.
Driving over 200 million miles in the past ten years, our teams are regularly reminded of the importance of driving smart to stay safe. Using telematics as real-time data to track fleet safety on a weekly basis, having a driver safety score nearing 96%, our top-line driver safety performance data is a conversation held at the highest levels within the business.
Gareth Pearson, Northern Powergrid’s Director of Health, Safety and Training said: “National Road Safety Week is a key time to educate and engage colleagues about safe driving practices, especially as we’re heading into winter with dark evenings and adverse weather conditions.
“Our teams drive millions of business miles per year and appropriate education, engagement and training is paramount to ensure our colleagues return home safe after each working day.
“We’re incredibly proud of our colleagues, and our driver safety record, which was demonstrated by our recent success at Brake UK’s Fleet Champion Awards - crowned Company Driver Safety winner in the large fleet category, and we’re committed to supporting Brake to reduce and prevent road deaths and help protect our workforce and communities across our region.”
John Wilkinson, Northern Powergrid’s Driver Safety and Performance Manager said: “Road Safety Week is the biggest road safety campaign across the country and at Northern Powergrid this provides a timely reminder to colleagues about the importance of completing a circle of inspection each time they use their vehicle, and to ensure mandatory safe driver training is up-to-date if they drive for business purposes.
“Throughout this week colleagues will be engaged in communications and advice on how to stay safe and be prepared for winter, including avoiding distractions and planning their work driving routes ahead of time, taking into account adverse weather conditions.
“Our message to colleagues and our communities is simple: safe driving is no accident, and everyone should drive wise to save lives.”
Road Safety Week is Brake's biggest road safety campaign. Every year, thousands of schools, organisations and communities get involved to share important road safety messages, remember people affected by road death and injury, and raise funds to help Brake care for more road victims and campaign for safe roads for everyone. Learn more on their website: www.brake.org.uk/road-safety-week.
Find out more about Brake’s UK Fleet Champions Awards.
Download free safety information at www.northernpowergrid.com/safety.
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