Road Safety Week is the UK's biggest road safety event, coordinated annually by Brake,  involving thousands of schools, organisations and communities each year.

Brake is a road safety charity that works to prevent road death and injury, make streets and communities safer, and supports the victims of road crashes. Brake founded Road Safety Week in 1997 as an annual event to raise awareness about road safety and promote steps that everyone can take to stop these needless deaths and injuries year-round.

Road Safety Week aims to inspire communities to take action on road safety and promote life-saving messages during the Week and beyond. It also provides a focal point for professionals working in road safety to boost awareness and engagement in their work.

Road safety affects everyone. It affects whether children can go to the park or walk to school, elderly people can get to the shops, people can take up cycling to get to work or get fit, and families feel safe to get around their neighbourhoods.

For some people, it changes everything. Road crashes and casualties end lives too soon, rip families apart, leave communities reeling in shock and victims feeling alone and without hope.

Brake’s vision

Brake's vision is a world that has zero road deaths and injuries, where people can get around in ways that are safe, sustainable, healthy and enjoyable.  You may like to help Brake prevent road deaths and injuries, and support victims of road crashes, by fundraising during Road Safety Week.

Brake's theme this year is Make the Brake Pledge: they're focusing on six elements of the Brake Pledge for this year's Road Safety Week: Slow, Sober, Secure, Silent, Sharp and Sustainable.  Here's why their theme is important:

• Slow: Breaking the speed limit or travelling too fast for the conditions is recorded by police at crash scenes as a contributory factor in more than one in four (27%) fatal crashes in Great Britain
• Sober: Having even one drink before getting behind the wheel can affect your ability to drive. In 2013 one in 10 (11%) drivers/motorcycle riders killed in a crash had alcohol present in their body, even though they weren’t over the legal blood-alcohol limit. One in seven road deaths are at the hands of someone who has driven while over the limit
• Secure: Seat belts are still seen as an inconvenience by some drivers, yet using one reduces the chance of dying in a crash by 50%. 21% of car occupants killed in crashes were not wearing a seat belt
• Silent: Drivers who perform a complex secondary task, like using a mobile, while at the wheel are three times more likely to crash than non-distracted drivers
• Sharp: Booking in for a regular eye test should be at the top of any driver’s to-do list. Road crashes caused by poor driver vision are estimated to cause 2,900 casualties and cost £33 million in the UK per year
• Sustainable: By minimising the amount we drive, and walking, cycling or using public transport instead, we are making our communities safer places, and doing the best we can for the environment and our individual health. Air pollution is a major killer: there are an estimated 29,000 deaths per year from particulate matter pollution in the UK, 5,000 of which are attributable to road transport

Visit the main fundraising pages on the Brake website for more great ideas, and info on sponsored runs, treks and daredevil challenges. Or Contact Lisa on 01484 683294, email fundraise@brake.org.uk to discuss  ideas and request a free fundraising pack to help make your fundraiser a success.