New Chamber members says “Safety is our business”

15th March 2022

If you haven’t heard of the South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership (SYSRP), don’t worry…we’ve put together a short introduction to explain what our team is all about.

And more importantly for you, how we can work with businesses to help keep employees safer and reduce the chances of them being involved in a work-related road traffic collision.

Launched in 2010, the partnership was formed with the overarching aim of reducing the number of people killed or injured in a collision on South Yorkshire’s roads.

Made up of the four local authorities, South Yorkshire Police and South Yorkshire Fire Service, the partnership brings together enforcement, engineering and education in a collective approach to making our roads safer.

Today, over a decade since its launch, our team of specialists is still out and about delivering a wide range of interventions to priority road user groups, identified through collision data.

Partnership manager Joanne Wehrle said:

“We provide an extensive programme of community engagement and publicity activity, particularly focused on the main casualty groups, which includes 17-24-year-olds.

“Through campaigns, school and college visits, free training and working with businesses, we hope to achieve a shift in attitudes and behaviour towards safer roads use.

“This is done alongside the enforcement and engineering activity carried out by our partners so that if one part fails, other parts will still protect the people involved.”

The Safer Roads initiatives range from free on-line theory practice modules and eco-driving courses to first aid training for motorcyclists and YouTube guides around cycle maintenance.

Our schools officer focusses on primary and secondary school-aged road safety education and we have dedicated young driver and young rider officers who deliver in person to training schools, football academies and colleges.

For businesses, we offer Safer Driving at Work which is designed for companies with a fleet of drivers. The one-day course aims to reduce collisions by improving company policies and considers the implications for businesses, employees and their friends and family when something goes wrong.

Based at the purpose-built Lifewise Centre in Rotherham, the course drives home the need for having the correct policies and procedures in place, making drivers and fleet managers think about the many legal and emotional implications of an employee being involved in a serious road traffic collision. 

Joanne added:

“Every week around 20 people in the UK are killed and 220 serious injuries are sustained in collisions involving someone who is driving for work. 

“Employers have a legal duty to manage their employees’ risk on the road in the same way as any other health and safety issue.

“Our one-day course covers all these issues and we can also develop bespoke sessions looking at the corporate responsibilities of businesses who have employees driving for work, as well as employees riding for work on bicycles to motorbikes/scooters.”

Other options include a visit to your business to talk to your staff, providing presentations, interactive activities and resources for people to take away. We can sign post you to other useful resources both on our own website, links with our partners and other reputable road safety sources. 

We also have a media officer who runs campaigns on subjects including speed, mobile phones and drink driving as well as issuing press releases, managing our social media channels and overseeing our website.

Why not link in with our campaigns calendar and use our content and messaging to remind your staff about important road safety topics?
Whatever type of road user you are and whatever role travel has in your life, SYSRP can help.

It is our hope that by working together with our communities, businesses and members of the public, we can all join together to help deliver improvements in road safety.

“By sharing the responsibility for road safety, we can make a big difference and prevent the needless pain, grief and suffering associated with each and every road traffic collision,” added Joanne.

There is a wide range of information and data on our website as well as links to relevant external agencies. Please visit us at www.sysrp.co.uk or get in touch via email enquiries@sysrp.co.uk 

You can also follow us on social media @SYSaferRoads (Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / YouTube and LinkedIn)