November 2015

Pupils from five Midland primary schools are poised to become recording artists after their original songs and performances impressed rock legend Rick Wakeman in the finals of a song contest. The former Yes member judged the competition devised by Birmingham road safety charity DriveSafe & StaySafe and held at Hampton Manor, Solihull. Winners were Delves Infant School, Walsall with their rap song ‘It’s all about Road Safety’.

Rick Wakeman commented: “It’s great to see such enthusiasm from all the schools and it’s absolutely amazing what they have all achieved.”

Mrs Amanda Arnold, Headteacher of the winning school, said: “The children had a fantastic afternoon at the awards and were so proud to win. Miss Stacey Trow, their amazing class teacher, made sure that the children learned about road safety in a fun and memorable way and got the whole school involved with a song to remember.”

The song contest accompanied the official launch of The Conies, a new DriveSafe & StaySafe video series for primary schools featuring a family of traffic cones who deliver road and personal safety messages through their comic adventures.

The multimedia programme will also incorporate interactive games, teaching packs and other e-learning resources, developed with the help of pupils and teachers from Solihull Junior School and St Alphege Junior School in Solihull.

West Midlands Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Yvonne Mosquito, who gave the keynote speech in support of the initiative, said: “Past Government campaigns to engage with young people through Tufty the Squirrel and the Green Cross Code Man did a lot of good work, but there are still a shockingly high number of children involved in road accidents each year.

“The Conies capture the essence of these child-focused campaigns by making road safety fun and stimulating. These entertaining characters will become nationally recognised as a symbol of good practice for children on the roads, and there is no reason why they should not also become a means for delivering safety messages to you people all over the world.”

Fay Goodman, Managing Director of DriveSafe & StaySafe, said: “My vision is for our little Conies to keep children of all ages safe by engaging with them in their fun cone-shaped world where road signs come to life.

“Child road accidents are on the up – reversing years of decline – with almost 70% occurring within 500 metres of schools, and the education watchdog Ofsted has raised the bar against which schools are being measured and assessed for pupil safety. That is why The Conies has such a vital role to play.”

French director Luc Besson teams up with road safety campaigners from across the world to produce a film about child road safety. The uncompromising film aims to save the lives of 500 children who are killed everyday through traffic accidents. The film follows two groups of children commuting to school, one group in South Africa, the other in France

The Government’s decision to back the development of driverless cars has received a cautious response from road safety charity DriveSafe & StaySafe.

The Birmingham-based enterprise has responded to a vow made by Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin at the Conservative Party’s annual conference in Manchester by insisting that technology lacks the human predictive touch that enables us to make safety decisions spontaneously.

Fay Goodman, DriveSafe & StaySafe Managing Director, said: “Although technology has made vehicles safer in many ways, I would be cautious about placing total reliance on it.

“The need for a human safeguard should not be overlooked, especially in the event of the technology failing which – as we all know from the joys of IT – it often does.”

Fay added: “I would find it hard to imagine a time when technology had become sophisticated enough to predict and respond to a possible accident in the same way that an experienced driver would. 

“I also have no doubt that a transition stage in which driverless cars share the roads with driver-operated vehicles would make the roads more dangerous.”

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Issued on behalf of DriveSafe & StaySafe by SHPR (simon@simonhalepr.co.uk/ 07970802494) For more details, please contact Fay Goodman on 07976 426463 (fay@drivesafe-staysafe.co.uk)

A Birmingham-based road safety organisation is so excited by its plans for a new video education series for schools that it wants budding young song writers to join in the fun.

DriveSafe & StaySafe, which is producing a new cartoon series The Conies to help keep children safe especially in travelling to and from school, is inviting primary schools from across the West Midlands to create original lyrics for a song promoting road safety.

The competition will support UN Global Road Safety Week from May 4-10, the campaign theme of which is ‘Save kids’ lives’.

The winning entry will be put to music and film by professional musicians and video producers at Birmingham production company Goodmedia Ltd and promoted on radio and through social media. All entries will be featured on the DriveSafe & StaySafe website.

The Conies features a cartoon family based on traffic cones that deliver safety messages through their fun antics and storylines. The series is being produced with the support of the European Regional Development Fund and rock legend and philanthropist Rick Wakeman.

Read the full article on The Birmingham Press website – ‘Road Safety message launched in song’

Read the full article on Fleet Point website – ‘DriveSafe launch competition for Global Road Safety Week’

A loveable family of cartoon characters is all set to improve road safety awareness among children thanks to a major initiative from Birmingham-based DriveSafe & StaySafe.

The social enterprise has teamed up with rock legend and philanthropist Rick Wakeman and leading speakers on road safety to launch ‘The Conies’ as a new multimedia initiative for primary schools at Hampton Manor in Hampton-in-Arden, Solihull on Thursday, October 1, the same day that smoking in a private vehicle carrying someone under 18 becomes illegal. 

Keynote speeches will be made by Shadow Transport Minister Richard Burden and West Midlands Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Yvonne Mosquito, and Rick Wakeman will go on to judge the finals of DriveSafe’s road safety song writing competition for Midland schools.

The Conies has been created by Birmingham production company Goodmedia Ltd, with the support of the European Regional Development Fund, as a video series featuring a family of traffic cones who deliver road and personal safety messages through their comic adventures. The series is supported by interactive games, teaching packs and other e-learning resources.

Fay Goodman, Founder of DriveSafe & StaySafe, says the driving force behind the cartoon series has been the first rise in the annual figure for child deaths and serious injuries in 20 years for the year ending September 2014: “The reversal in declining child road casualties has been down to increasing cuts in visible policing and road safety spending,” she said.

“The Conies will fill the gap left by the Green Cross Code Man campaign, which is estimated to have saved as many as 250,000 children from being injured or killed on our roads. The cartoon family live in a zany cone-shaped world where traffic signs come to life during their antics and adventures, making safety awareness learning for children stimulating and fun,” Fay added. 

DriveSafe & StaySafe has championed personal safety for many years with organisations ranging from the NHS to the Institute of Directors and from small businesses to women’s and victim support groups. The not-for-profit organisation published a driver’s handbook, ‘DriveSafe – An Essential Guide for Motorists, in association with Aston University in 2012.

Fay Goodman was highly commended for her DriveSafe & StaySafe Courtesy on the Road campaign at the IOD Awards in 2014.

Editors wishing to send a reporter or photographer to the launch of The Conies should contact Simon Hale at SHPR by email at simon@simonhalepr.co.uk (Tel: 07970 802494) 

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For more details, please contact Fay Goodman on 07976 426463 (fay@drivesafe-staysafe.co.uk), Laura Preece  on 07867 486329 (laura@drivesafe-staysafe.co.uk) or Mark Wolski on 07957 424907 (mark@goodmedia.co.uk)

Fay Goodman, Founder of DriveSafe & StaySafe