Thu May 14 2009
Bev Brock Becomes First Patron of Fatality Free Friday
Bev Brock, partner for 28 years of motor racing legend Peter Brock has accepted the role of patron of Fatality Free Friday, Australia’s only national community road safety program.
“We’re absolutely honoured and delighted to have Bev on board as our patron,” said Russell White, founder of Fatality Free Friday and one of Australia’s leading driver trainers.
“Not only was she a supporter and influence in the driver awareness work undertaken by Peter Brock over many years but also today, Bev is very actively involved in mentoring and teaching life skills.
“Life skills, such as situational awareness and being aware of how our actions effect other people, are at the heart of the Fatality Free Friday philosophy.
“Sadly, in our day-to-day lives when someone gets distracted or makes poor choices, (and) it is in that split second tragedy happens.
“Fatality Free Friday is designed to get people thinking consciously about their road use for just one day, which hopefully will increase their awareness for every day.”
Bev said she was pleased to support Fatality Free Friday as a way of furthering Peter Brock’s legacy of encouraging better driving.
The Australian Touring Car champion died in September 2006 during a rally event in Western Australia.
“If my support can further Peter’s legacy and cause a single person to re-think a potentially poor choice or to remind them that when they’re behind the wheel, they’re 100% responsible for their action, then I’m very pleased to do it,” she said.
“We have to be creative in our approach to reducing the road toll.
“This is an issue we’d dearly love to see fixed and Fatality Free Friday is an excellent way of reminding people about what they can do to save a life.”
Fatality Free Friday 2009 marks the third year of the campaign and has attracted wide range of commercial sponsors and supporters including Isuzu Ute, Tyres & More, Suncorp Insurance, Armor All, 4BC and the Motorama Group.
Unlike other road safety campaigns, Fatality Free Friday offered direct and tangible participation.
“We’re encouraging businesses, families, schools and community groups to download a pledge form the web site www.fatalityfreefriday.com and sign it and encourage other people to sign it too,” said Russell.
“This year we’ve added more to the website including puzzles and games to encourage children to play their part.
“There are also a range of activities that we are undertaking in the build up to May 22. This will include a convoy on the day itself as well as school visits.
“We’re also welcoming community organisations who want to hold a special event to raise awareness of road safety.”
The convoy this year will feature for the first time Jeff Bloom - founder of the Aussie Muscle Car Museum in Brisbane, who will drive a flashy muscle car on the day. The museum has the largest collection of Aussie muscle cars in the world. Check www.aussiemusclecarmuseum.com.au
The Fatality Free Friday Official Road Safety Convoy leaves the car park of Movie World, Gold Coast, at 9.30am on May 22, 2009, to go to Radacliffe Place, Brisbane CBD under Queensland Police escort.
The convoy will travel via schools and community organisations en route to present and reinforce the Fatality Free Friday road safety message.
The initiative was awarded a highly commended at the 2007 Queensland Road Safety Awards and was a finalist in the 2008 awards.
Side Bar Information:
It’s hard to steer around facts like these.
- More than 1600 Australians are killed on our roads each year.
- The economic cost to Australia of road trauma is $17,000,000,000 ($17 billion).
- 1.2 million people are killed on the world’s roads every year.
- An estimated 50,000,000 are injured worldwide.
- The most deadly time of day to be on the road is between 3pm and 5pm.
- 95% of road crashes are caused by human error.
- It’s estimated deaths and injuries will increase 65% by 2020.
- The worst year on Australia’s roads was 1970 when 3798 people died. Australia’s population in 1970 was only 12.6 million. That’s 30.4 deaths per 100,000.
- The National Road Safety Strategy issued in 2000 set a target of reducing road deaths to 5.6 per 100,000 by December 2010.
- India is the deadliest country in which to drive. In 2007 more than 130,000 Indian nationals died on their roads
# ENDS
Note to Editors:
Russell White and Bev Brock are available for interview via the contact details below:
Russell White
Mobile: 0419 866 165
E-mail: info@driversafety.com.au
Jacqui Carling-Rodgers
Business Communications Management
Phone: (07) 5591 8081
Mobile: 0414 282 048
Jeff Bloom can be interviewed by calling:
Jeff Bloom on 3854 0094 or Aldwyn Altuney, of AA Xposé Media, on 5571 0233/ 0409 895 055 or emailing aldwyn@aaxpose.com
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