Lancashire County Council Logo | Listen | Home | A to Z | Feedback | Complaints | Your Council | Business | Residents | Visitors |
10.5.1 Training courses
Lancashire has been a pioneer of training programmes for all kinds of road users, and particularly those who are at a greater risk. Lancashire will continue to refine its courses to counter the causes of road casualties. It will maintain the MIDAS training for minibus drivers and will work with European partners to explore a range of options to address the needs of the older driver.10.5.2 Managing Occupational Road Risk (MORR)
30% of road traffic crashes involve vehicles on work related journeys. Lancashire County Council is now one of the limited number of Fleet Accredited Organisations within the UK. Lancashire will use a team of professional practitioners within the Road Safety group to increase the number of organisations auditing the drivers in their work force.The team has developed a cascade model to ensure that companies have a reliable and accessible service. We will encourage and help organisations in both the private and public sectors to review their polices on drivers in the work place.
10.5.3 Speed Awareness Course
Lancashire pioneered the development of the Speed Awareness Course from the principles of the tried and tested national Driver Improvement Scheme. The aim of the course is to modify the behaviour of drivers and their attitude towards speed. Lancashire Constabulary offers the training course to drivers found exceeding the speed limit at the lower thresholds as an alternative to prosecution. The scheme now employs over 100 professional driving instructors and is responsible for retraining over 12,000 drivers per year.In October 2005 the Association of Chief Police Officers adopted a national model for the delivery of speed awareness courses based on the highly successful Lancashire course. Police forces will be encouraged to adopt the national course and offer these to drivers who are detected speeding in certain limits at a level set by each force but not for drivers who are speeding by more than 10% +6mph over any limit. Courses will have to meet the national specification and will be provided by local authorities and companies who are members of the Association of National Driver Improvement Scheme Providers (ANDISP). The County Council’s Road Safety Group Manager holds the chair of ANDISP.
10.5.4 Pre Pass Support Scheme
Young drivers on the road are at greater risk than experienced ones. In the year after of passing their driving test, they are three times more likely to be involved in an accident. One reason is their lack of experience. Many have little experience beyond their driving lessons. When young drivers do have the opportunity to go out with a mentor, they may learn incorrect methods and develop wrong attitudes.We are working on a pilot scheme to develop a partnership between a young learner driver, a parent or guardian and the professional instructor. The purpose is to reduce the number of casualties in a vulnerable road user group and to help the County Council meet its extended target for casuality reduction in the Local Public Service Agreement. After the pilot scheme has been evaluated by Cranfield University it will be expanded and more widely promoted.
Motorcyclist Training Programme
Motorcyclists suffer a disproportionately high number of road casualties. Although they account for less than 1% of all road users, they suffer 14% of deaths and serious injuries. Since 1996, motorcycle casualties have shown a steady annual increase in contrast to the downward trend for motorists. To counter the rising number of casualties among motorcycle riders, we have developed two programmes to improve rider skills, one aimed at novices and one for riders found riding without due care and attention.
7,000 CBT certificates were issued in 2005. Novice riders are a large group who are inexperienced and therefore at greater risk of traffic accidents. We will offer a further course of training to riders who have been awarded their CBT certificate to prepare them better for the situations that they will meet on the road.
Accident data shows that there has been a sharp rise in casualties among male riders between the ages of 30 and 55 riding high-powered machines. In response to this, Lancashire, on behalf of the national Motorcycle Casualty Reduction Forum, has been leading a multi-agency team to produce a course to be offered to motorcyclists found riding without due care and attention.
Like the National Driver Improvement Course, the RiDES course will be offered to riders as an alternative to prosecution to rectify unsafe riding behaviour and reduce the number of injury accidents. Through a cross-party working group, the County Council has developed an appropriate course that will be piloted in Lancashire. It will be fully evaluated and a cascade training model will be offered to other authorities.
Printer Friendly Version | About our website | Top of page | Environment Directorate Copyright © 2009, Lancashire County Council | Site Terms What's New | Site Map | (External) Tell us what you think about our site...