Learning across borders to protect young road users

It’s been a busy and rewarding week supporting John Duncan and Emma Thompson’s visit to the UK and connecting them with colleagues across the road safety community.

John and Emma are from BRAKE Australia, a registered charity delivering evidence-based driver awareness education in secondary schools. Its curriculum-aligned programme, developed by a former police sergeant with input from educators, emergency services and parents, has reached more than 80,000 students in over 160 schools across almost two decades.

Over the week, they met with Dr Elizabeth Box (RAC Foundation) and James Gibson (Road Safety GB), and attended the Project EDWARD parliamentary reception, where they connected with James Luckhurst (Project EDWARD), Stuart Lovett and Michael Bourne (TyreSafe), Sharron Huddleston, Dr Ian Greenwood, Kate Monk (My Learner Driver) and Joy Allen, Police and Crime Commissioner for Durham and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners’ road safety lead.

They also spent time with Steve Batchelor (Lincolnshire County Council), Kendrick Hourd (Via East Midlands), Adrian Harding (Young Driver Foundation), Tony Crook (Lancashire County Council), Kate Castle and Faye Cannon (Warwickshire County Council), alongside online meetings with Ross Moorlock (Brake, the road safety charity), Leanne McMahon (National Fire Chiefs Council) and Emma Tracey (Kent County Council).

They even met my family too.

I really hope they’ve found the week useful and energising. It’s been encouraging to see their commitment to coming here to learn, to compare approaches and to explore opportunities to work together in the future.

Road harm is a global challenge - and collaboration like this really matters.