Employers Spurred into Road Safety Action

Employers have been spurred into action this Road Safety Week and taken positive steps to improve the safety of employees and all road-users.
Suzanne Randall, corporate account manager at Specsavers Corporate eyecare, said: ‘As part of the annual road safety campaign, Specsavers Corporate Eyecare has taken its Driving Eyesight Roadshow to over 2,000 employees, at seven companies across the UK. The main element of the roadshow was vision screening, using a portable device, which allows the optician to check that an individual’s eyesight meets the legal requirements for driving.’
In Road Safety Week alone, the Specsavers Corporate Eyecare roadshow visited:
  • The Driving Instructors Association, for a professional development day with 150 attendees at the Motor Heritage Centre in Gaydon, Warwickshire
  • Amey, one of the UK’s leading public and regulated service providers
  • The Licence Bureau, which performs driver licence checks against current DVLA and DVANI records
  • Allianz Insurance in Guildford for a wellbeing event
  • South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, in Bristol
  • Computacenter, for their road safety day for 1,500 employees
  • South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, in Swindon

DIA

Carly Brookfield, director at DIA said: ‘The amazing news is that 45 of our members had their eyes screened throughout the day and all passed with flying colours, which goes to show that our driving instructors are leading by example and are practicing what they preach.’
Using the vision screening facility over a period of eight months during 2013, Specsavers has seen one in three drivers fail the sight test for driving. The results for the DIA members are, therefore, quite exceptional. Specsavers Corporate Eyecare is working with the DIA to ensure that its members pass this important message on to their pupils through tips, advice and promotional offers.

Amey

Leánne Carvell, senior fleet and plant manager at Amey said: ‘As a company we manage and maintain over 55,000km of local and strategic roads and therefore take the health, safety and wellbeing of our employees who work on the network extremely seriously. We are delighted that Specsavers could attend one of our safety roadshows to help us further protect our employees and ensure the safety of the travelling public.’

Licence Bureau

The Licence Bureau spent Road Safety Week supporting local schools in Hertfordshire and targeting students, educating them about road safety. Malcolm Maycock, director at the Licence Bureau, said: ‘Driving safety, particularly with regards to younger drivers, is very close to my heart. I lost my best friend at a very early age to a driving accident and if I can help educate young people about the devastating consequences of taking risks, I will take every opportunity. Specsavers provided pens and post-it notes for students to aid their studies along with advice sheets for parents.’

South Western Ambulance

Sam Fraser, equality, health and wellbeing lead at South Western Ambulance, said: ‘The eye screening was very popular and really useful, we want to do it again soon, here and at our other sites.’
Road Safety Week took place from 18 to 25 November 2013.

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