Global mission earns Thatcham a Prince Michael Award
A MISSION to ensure that ‘globally, vehicles are repaired safely, crash injuries are minimised and vehicle theft is eradicated’ has secured The Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre, Thatcham, the top Prince Michael International Road Safety Award 2008...
The organisation was presented with the Premier Award in this year’s Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards at a glittering lunch at the Park Lane Hotel in London in December.
Leader
The insurance industry’s research centre is a leader in raising standards of crash protection and crash avoidance technology. Its work includes increasing public awareness of vehicle safety systems by establishing league tables of safety features and is a fully active partner in the European New Car Assessment Programme and the Europe-wide ‘Choose ESC!’ campaign. It has also established a worldwide reputation for research into whiplash – the most common injury in car crashes.
Meanwhile, this year’s Prince Michael International Fleet Award was won by global courier company TNT Express. In presenting the Award, the judges said the firm “demonstrates an outstandingly high level of management commitment to operational road safety through top level involvement, sound internal audit and reporting and a commitment to the promotion of road safety through local and global action”. See case study TNT Express.
The Prince Michael Technology Award was won by GreenRoad Technologies’ for its young driver coaching programme initiative with Staffordshire Road Safety Team.
Safety Center
The company’s Safety Center, which is already in use with some fleets in the UK including T-Mobile and the Ministry of Defence, is a tiny dashboard-mounted ‘box’, which monitors up to 120 different driving manoeuvres.
It combines in-vehicle driver coaching with web analytical reporting. Fitted to young drivers’ cars in Staffordshire it has been able to deliver a 66% improvement in driver safety.
The Award also comes on the back of a string of fleet contract wins in recent weeks by GreenRoad Technologies, which include: Derby Council and St. Edmundsbury Borough Council installing Safety Center in council and ‘grey’ fleet vehicles and Adur and Worthing Council Services introducing the technology to its fleet of refuse and recycling vehicles; and a global agreement with Marsh, the world’s leading insurance broker to promote Safety Center to fleet customers.
Meanwhile, bus operator Stagecoach will complete a sixmonth trial next year with Safety Center fitted to 60 vehicles in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria to improve safety, reduce fuel costs and cut carbon emissions; and Metroline is installing Safety Center in more than 100 of its buses in West London. The Media Award was won by the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety for its ‘Missing Matthew’ campaign run in colleges, universities and sixth form schools, regional TV, local and regional radio and newspapers tackling reckless behaviour amongst vulnerable young drivers (RoadSafe: spring 2008). It is a true story about the death of Blackburn lad, Matthew Hannon (22).
International
The International Award was won by the Federal Road Safety Commission in Nigeria, for its work in cutting death and injury on the country’s roads. Nigeria has one of the highest fatality/frequency index rates of road crashes in the world.
Other Prince Michael Awards winners were: Bedfordshire County Council Road Safety, Central Scotland Police, Road Safety Scotland and the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland, Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership, The Institution of Highways and Transportation, The Commander System from Tele- Traffic UK Limited, RoadSTARS (Sustainable Travel and Road Safety), Kingston Upon Thames, the M1 J6a-10 motorway widening scheme and First Car Magazine.
Further details at www.roadsafetyawards.com