Road Safety
Our mission is to provide those that live, work and visit
Bedford Borough with relevant information and services to allow
them to make informed decisions on how they can keep themselves and
others from coming to harm whilst using the road. We will do this
where appropriate in conjunction with our partners.
Road crashes happen to others, or so we think. But the
majority of crashes are caused by human error. Whether walking,
cycling, riding or driving in todays traffic conditions
concentration, awareness of what's happening around us and the
ability to deal with it are crucial .
In the UK, over a 1,000 people die each year on the roads. Tens
of thousands are seriously injured and hundreds of thousands suffer
minor injuries.
The Road Traffic Act (RTA) 1988 (as amended by the RTA 1991)
places a statutory responsibility for road safety on local
authorities. The act requires local authorities to prepare
and carry out a programme of measures designed to promote road
safety and enable a contribution to be made towards the cost of
promoting road safety measures, The areas that the Road Safety Team
are here to deal with are :-
- Education
- Training
- Publicity
Other areas relating to Road Safety such as Safety Audits or
Road Engineering should be referred to the Borough Council Highways
Helpdesk on 01234 718003 or highways.helpdesk@bedford.gov.uk
The Road Safety Team are responsible for raising awareness of
road safety issues by use of the following initiatives
:-
- The provision of pre-school play
boxes
- Educational programmes in
schools
- Facilitating Bikeability cycle
training
- Powered 2 wheel training and
advice
- Pre driver / driver training and
advice
- In-car safety (seatbelts/child
seats/mobile phones/fatigue)
- At work road risk advice
- Horse rider advice
- Developing bespoke projects and campaigns
to meet specific needs as they are identified
- Working with partners to maximise
investment in both delivery of training and in raising awareness of
road safety issues
- Distributing publicity materials and
supporting activity for government and other agencies'
campaigns.
We also manage the Borough’s School Crossing Patrol
Service.
Road Safety Team
(01234) 228336
Email road.safety@bedford.gov.uk