Press releases

National safety recognition for leading UK bus operator

Leading UK bus operator Arriva has won the coveted top award at the national Brake Road Safety Awards.

Arriva's 'Best Risk Managed Company of the Year' award was backed up with highly commended rankings in the 'Safety in Vehicle Maintenance' and 'Road Safety in the Community' awards. And the operator's London business won the 'Crash Analysis Procedures' award for work identifying and communicating 'accident blackspots' on routes.

The combination of Arriva's efforts in safety has led to a noticeable drop in incidents involving its buses. And the successful initiatives are being shared across the Group's bus operations in mainland Europe.

The judges were impressed with Arriva's 'innovative and successful initiatives across the company' which have reduced incidents and led the way in risk management thinking. The judges cited initiatives from healthy living programmes addressing eyesight, tiredness and stress for drivers, aerial photography of 'accident blackspots' to psychometric and hazard perception training.

Some of the key initiatives which led to the awards were:

• appointing bus drivers as school liaison officers in nearly all 100 Arriva bus depots across the UK to promote its 'its not cool to fool' education sessions to children who use buses;
• working to identify accident blackspots along bus routes involving Arriva's and other road vehicles and communicating these to bus drivers through aerial photography and clear guidance;
• introducing a comprehensive maintenance regime standardised across the company which has led to exemplary MOT pass rates. In many cases, Arriva's vehicle maintenance and inspection standards are higher than the legal requirements;
• Arriva's bus driving simulator – similar to technology used by airline pilots – which was developed with Cranfield University to help the recruitment, training and assessment of bus drivers across the business. The simulator is the first of its kind in Europe;
• awareness campaigns to inform and educate bus drivers about well-being, including healthy eating, over the counter medicines, exercise and getting a good night's sleep;
• Arriva's ' Lights on for Life' campaign, which saw all 6,000 Arriva buses driving with dipped headlights on at all times, has helped to significantly reduce accidents. Other bus companies have since followed Arriva's example;
• Arriva's motto of ' Written by drivers for drivers' sees bus driver involvement in creating and implementing road safety initiatives for the benefit of colleagues and the wider community;
• Arriva has indicated its commitment to improving safety by becoming a signatory of the European Road Safety Charter, which aims to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in road accidents by 2010, a saving of 20,000 lives.

Richard Bowler, finance director for Arriva's UK Bus division was delighted with the announcement. He said:

We put safety at the heart of everything we do. These awards recognise and reward the hard work of our Risk Management team, led by Lynne Beale, and the commitment that Arriva employees – managers, inspectors, engineers, bus drivers – put in to keep safety at the fore of our everyday working lives.

Notes to editors

• Photographs are available – contact us for details.
• If you are interested in following up any of the above initiatives, please let us know. We can help to set up photo opportunities and give you local information if required.
• Brake is a road safety charity working to stop deaths and injuries on roads, and working to care for people affected by road crashes.