New Zealand Company Vehicle

Employers are being encouraged to help save lives and raise awareness of key road safety messages by joining in with Road Safety Week 2013. Brake, the road safety charity, which coordinates the event with the support of sponsor QBE Insurance and supporter the Road Safety Trust, is calling on companies to start planning safety initiatives now, well in advance of the big week, May 6 to 12.
The theme that Brake will be promoting during the week is Streets for People. The theme helps remind everyone that streets are there to help communities, not endanger and take lives, and it is the right of everyone, including children, the elderly and the disabled, to be able to get around their communities on foot and bicycles without risk.
Brake will be calling on drivers to get out and walk and cycle whenever they can, and to drive below 30km/h when in communities. At speeds of under 30km/h drivers have much more chance of being able to stop in time if a child runs out.
Companies can go to www.brake.org.nz/roadsafetyweek for ideas of activities to run and ways to promote the week to staff. Employers can attend a free webinar on Wednesday 27 March to hear further tips on organising activities and ideas for taking part. Brake is also running a creative competition in the run up to the week, which individuals and groups can enter. More information is available at www.brake.org.nz/rsw-competition.
During the week companies can communicate road safety messages in a variety of ways, for example by sending employees e-reminders on road safety topics such as speed, drink and drug driving, or vehicle maintenance during the week and asking them to sign Brake’s Pledge to end dangerous and unnecessary driving. Company managers and driver trainers can also attend a course to train them in delivering the messages of the Pledge. Visit www.brake.org.nz/pledge-course for more details.  
Companies can also engage employee support for the cause by running an office fundraiser, such as a car wash or a Bright Day, when everyone comes to work dressed brightly to draw attention to the vulnerability of pedestrians and cyclists, helping raise funds in aid of Brake’s support services for road crash victims.