Road safety and breakdown recovery provider GEM Motoring Assist is taking the opportunity to congratulate organisers of the first Project EDWARD (European day Without A Road Death), which took place in 30 countries on Wednesday 21 September 2016.
GEM road safety officer Neil Worth participated in a seminar in Brussels on Wednesday, organised by the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL). He addressed an audience of policymakers, road safety professionals and police chiefs, speaking of GEM’s whole-hearted support for EDWARD and for the concept of casualty reduction targets in general.
“Targets give meaning and direction to road safety work. We have something to aim for, and we can consolidate and combine our efforts much more effectively when we have something to work towards,” he said. “I know this is the view of most road safety practitioners, and I hope our efforts on Wednesday will help our Government recognise the value of targets, and once again make them part of an overall casualty reduction strategy. We set out to make one day without death on Europe’s roads. That was always going to be a very challenging task, and I know that there were some fatalities. So I cannot describe Project EDWARD as ‘a success’ in that regard. But as a way of raising awareness and striking a chord far beyond the road safety sector, I think Project EDWARD was a runaway success and I am excited about involvement in future events.”
“We are proud to have supported TISPOL in this initiative. We firmly believe that if each road user can make small changes to reduce risk, then together we can make some big improvements – and reduce the number of people who die or are seriously injured on Europe’s roads.”
The GEM Motoring Assist Road Safety Charity provided financial support to the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL), the organisation co-ordinating Project EDWARD activity across Europe. The donation was used for the production of 10 awareness-raising videos in 12 languages, shared across social media in the days leading up to Project EDWARD. Each video, lasting less than 30 seconds, took as its focus a key aspect of road safety – and offered road users a great opportunity to reflect on how they can be safer in what they do.
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