Road safety organisation and breakdown cover provider GEM Motoring Assist is celebrating its 80th Anniversary and 80 years of road safety campaigning. Formed in 1932, the company has been a champion of road safety issues since its creation, and continues to be committed to road safety campaigns today.
As well as supporting a wide variety of activities including conferences, award schemes and research, GEM also champions national and local road safety campaigns, donating equipment for training, assessment and vision screening, and producing free motoring advice and road safety leaflets and videos.
David Williams MBE, Chief Executive of GEM Motoring Assist, comments: “The legend has it that our founder was involved in a ‘near miss’ with a young man in a sports car in 1932 and in response, a group of friends formed a club to encourage Care, Courtesy and Concentration on the roads, to reduce the growing accident toll…and so the Company of Veteran Motorists was born.”
“There have been many motoring changes in our 80 years and we have played our part. From drink driving and motorway speed limits to lighter evenings and driving with pets, we have moved with the times, but our aim is still the same: to keep motorists as safe as possible on the road.”
To mark the occasion, GEM has sourced vintage cars, one from each decade of the last 80 years, and will be taking them for a test drive around the stunning Newhouse Estate, Salisbury, Wiltshire. Set to be featured in the next issue of GEM’s motoring magazine Good Motoring, the piece will also take a look back at some quirky and interesting road safety facts and figures from the last 80 years.
“It is really interesting to see in which decade new laws were introduced to make the roads safer for drivers and reduce accident rates. For example, in 1958 Volvo was the first to introduce the seatbelt, but it wasn’t until 1983 that it became compulsory to wear one in the UK when in the front seat; something which is second nature to us these days. We are delighted to be celebrating the success of road safety initiatives over the last 80 years and long may it continue to save lives on the road,” David concludes.
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