Date: 20th July, 2017
Over 300 soldiers will benefit from a hard hitting road safety initiative next week.
Since 2008, the Safe Drive Stay Alive road safety presentation has been delivered to military personnel and contractors based at garrisons in Wiltshire.
Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service, in partnership with Dorset Road Safe, is now expanding the scheme into Dorset, with two presentations being held at Allenby Barracks in Bovington on Tuesday (25 July).
Ian Hopkins, the Service’s road safety manager, said: “Since 2001, there has been an average of 37 military personnel killed on the UK’s roads each year, and road traffic collisions are one of the most common causes of death for people in the military. We have been working with the Wiltshire garrisons for some years, and these will be our first shows in Dorset.”
He added: “We are actually working with the British Army to take the Safe Drive Stay Alive presentation to all of its bases in the UK, as it has recognised that there is a risk its soldiers and wants to make its people safer.”
Safe Drive Stay Alive is a mixture of powerful personal testimony – from firefighters, medics, police officers, bereaved parents and people who have been directly involved in crashes – and dramatic video footage, which has been designed to relate specifically to a military audience.
Amongst the speakers at Allenby Barracks will be representatives of Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service, Dorset Police and the Major Trauma Operational Network, plus a number of volunteers who have had their lives shattered by road traffic collisions.