The Road Safety Trust has awarded funding to four organisations across the UK through its Small Grants Programme to help improve road safety. 

The Road Safety Trust is the largest independent funder of road safety in the UK and supports vital research and practical interventions committed to reducing the number of people killed or injured on UK roads.

This Small Grants round focused on taking forward initiatives previously funded by the Road Safety Trust, charities, a university, and community group and have been awarded between £24k and £30k. 

The Open University will build on initiatives in the Mobile: Engaged compendium.  It will examine officers’ attitudes to, and awareness of, the dangers of handsfree phone-use, evaluating how an educational intervention might inform their interactions with distracted drivers.

A charity, The Kier Foundation, will also be focusing on tackling the use of mobile phones whilst driving but within the scope of professional drivers.  They will examine the reasoning for breaching zero hands free policy by professional drivers and produce a video, grounded in behavioural change theory. The video will be widely available to help reduce distraction-based collisions in fleet drivers across the UK.

The British Horse Society will look at de-escalating road rage when passing vulnerable road users.  The aim is to provide mindfulness tactics to reduce anger towards vulnerable road users. 

Drymen Community Development Trust will trial the installation of white lining and planters in the roadway around their Village Square in Scotland.  The aim will be to achieve a reduction in speed, introduce a safer pedestrian crossing point and increase the community space within the village. 

Sonya Hurt, Chief Executive of The Road Safety Trust said: “The Small Grants Programme had a unique theme this year as it is the first time we have run a grant funding round offering the opportunity to take forward projects that have been funded and completed but which hold the potential to improve road safety more widely.”

(Picture – Yay Images)