This year’s BRAKE Road Safety Week took place between Sunday 19th November and Saturday 25th November 2023 and its theme was Let’s Talk About Speed. The campaign acknowledged we all drive too fast sometimes but every time we drive faster than the speed limit, or too fast for the road conditions, we increase the risk of a crash, increasing the chance that someone we love will be killed or hurt on a road. 

BRAKE aims to bring everyone together from schools to communities and professionals, to build upon drivers’, cyclists’, and pedestrians’ road safety knowledge. Whoever you are, however, you travel, we need to talk about SPEED.  

To support this year’s campaign, Amey South-West Trunk Roads teamed up with Castle Douglas High School, bringing their S1-S3 pupils an insightful talk on road safety. Castle Douglas High School is located near the A75 trunk road, a road that is considered the third most dangerous in Scotland. Pairing this with busy local roads at peak times, it became imperative to work together to provide greater road safety messages to the children. 

For Road Safety Week, two Amey employees visited Castle Douglas High School, giving a presentation to communicate the importance of ensuring safety on the roads, informing the children about road safety assessments and measures, and sharing recent statistics and facts that have influenced Amey’s road safety decisions in the area. 

By working closely with Castle Douglas High School, we were able to widen road safety knowledge among approximately 200 school children. 

Mr Cathro, Depute Head Teacher, said: “It was great having Vince in speaking to our young people. Road safety is one of many things we try to instill in our young people as they will need this for the rest of their lives. They are never too young to learn.”  

BRAKE aims to raise awareness of key areas of road safety that the government supports, including safe roads, safe vehicles and speeds, the newly introduced hierarchy of road users, and the importance of inclusivity in order to keep everyone safe on the roads, no matter how they travel. This is achieved via BRAKE’s three key points:  

• THINK about how we can all use roads safely to protect ourselves and other road users  
• UNDERSTAND how safe roads can enable everyone to make safe and healthy journeys  
• REMEMBER road crash victims and share their stories 

Last year, we introduced road safety mascot Patient Pencil to promote Amey’s messaging in relation to our strategic road safety projects. Find out more here.