Publicity - 2005

December

A number of different safety organisations ran various Christmas drink-drive campaigns, including the police, the fire service and public transport.   We supported their efforts by distributing Department for Transport posters locally and offering some non-alcoholic Christmas drink recipes on this website.

November

Driver Tiredness was highlighted through commercials on The Beach and SGR radio stations and posters were distributed to libraries. Colder weather encourages drivers to turn up the car heater, which can lead to drowsiness, and darker conditions also create fatigue.

October

Young driver safety received a boost when the For My Girlfriend campaign launched a new anti-speeding poster called "Blokes". The poster was distributed to pubs, clubs and colleges and targeted the 17-24 year age group.

The message was graphically brought home to students at West Suffolk College, who witnessed a crash reconstruction scene staged by police, ambulance and fire crews from the Bury area. Drama students played the part of victims in a crashed car as the services went into action as if it was a real emergency.

September

A child seat checking scheme for Ipswich was launched this month in cooperation with the Fire Service.

July/August

Drivers were given a drink drive reminder over the summer holidays with commercials broadcast on The Beach and SGR radio stations. There are as many drink drive casualties in the summer months as there are at Christmas. The campaign pointed out that it takes less than you might think to become a drink driver.

July

A bus back campaign publicised "20's Plenty" around Ipswich. This striking image left drivers in no doubt about the road safety message!

The bus toured the town's street for four months.

June

The Suffolk Roadsafe partnership was out in force at this year's Suffolk Show.

The centrepiece of our display was a crashed vehicle, which drew a lot of interest from visitors.

The Police and Community health promoted "Bikesafe" - a motorcycle assessment day run by police motorcyclists. The Fire Service brought a fire appliance and the Safecam team demonstrated their mobile speed camera equipment. Road Safety staff (pictured) gave out speed information and offered the special attraction of a reaction timer, which measured speed of braking reaction time for an emergency stop.

The road safety team were out in force on Sunday 19 June for the third, annual Suffolk Cycle Show at Martlesham Park and Ride Site. The event is the culmination of National Bike Week.

Visitors were able to try out different types of bikes, browse through trade stands and watch an action-packed programme with trials displays, cycle speedway racing and a Mountainbike Jump Show with stars from top riding teams "DMR" and "Identiti". A charity ride between Ipswich and Felixstowe was held to raise funds for St Elizabeth Hospice - the ride attracted over 150 cyclists. Thanks to sponsors Martlesham Park & Ride and organisers Elmy Cycles of Ipswich.

May

Walk to School Week is a national campaign that encourages children to walk to school rather than make the journey by car. Suffolk County Council supports the initiative every year and in 2005 a record number of over 28,000 pupils from 148 schools took part. Each child received a pack containing a travel diary and other educational materials.

April

Following the successful implementation of School Safety Zones during phase one of the project in 2004, phase two was re-launched for 2005 with the support of players from Ipswich Town FC Youth Team.

This second group of schools were situated in areas that had recorded accidents at their entrances and where there were instances of high speeds. Six schools received 20mph zone treatment, which consisted of more extensive works and mandatory 20 mph speed limits.

February

The Roadsafe partnership worked together to bring a crash reconstruction scene to Suffolk College. The emergency services carried out a "rescue" of two actors from the college drama group, who played the part of victims. The scene, which was witnessed by students, faithfully re-enacted a full-scale emergency situation and launched the "For My Girlfriend" campaign, 2005.