Ross Moorlock is the CEO of Brake, the UK’s leading road safety charity. Launched in 1995, its primary role is to support people bereaved and seriously injured by road crashes. It’s also an active campaigner for road safety. Each year, it organises Road Safety Week to ensure the issue receives the coverage and awareness it deserves. 

Here, Ross talks about the important work of the charity, the impact crashes have on victims and their families, and what you can do to help promote Road Safety Week. 

For the best part of 30 years now, Brake has been working to stop the tragedy of road deaths and injuries, and to support road crash victims through our national road victim service. 

Our vision is a world with zero road deaths and injuries, where we can all travel in a safe and healthy way regardless of our mode of transport. 

Until our vision becomes a reality, we're working to stop crashes on our roads, reduce harm when a crash happens, and to help every single road victim get the support they need for as long as they need it.

The reason is simple. A death or serious injury on the road should be a rare and unusual event. But sadly, today's reality is that five people die on the UK's roads every single day, while more than 15 times as many people are seriously injured. 

If the aviation or the rail industry had a safety record like that, then planes would be grounded and trains would be stopped. But when it comes to our roads, somehow — as a society —  we tolerate the intolerable. We convince ourselves that road deaths and life-changing injuries are just an inevitability and an acceptable trade-off against our need to move between places. 

We have to be serious about road safety

We have to do better than this as a society. Behind these numbers are real people. Real lives. Families and communities that are ripped apart and forever changed — lives cut short as a result of preventable road pressures. 

Now we know that road deaths are sudden. We know that road deaths can be violent and traumatic. And we know that people of all ages are killed, including children and young people, parents, partners, and grandparents. 

These events change the lives of families and communities forever. And the ripple effect impacts many more people. We also know that catastrophic injuries such as paralysis, head injury, and limb loss are debilitating and life-changing in so many ways. 

The truth is this: road pressures can affect all of us, and we all have a collective responsibility to tackle this issue on our roads.

As a charity that works with road victims and their families, we see the trauma and devastation that they face in their everyday lives. And that's why it's so important that we tackle this issue to change the narrative.  

Each year there is more to do

There's almost a normalisation of the fact that people die every day and people are injured on our roads. There's almost a sense that society doesn't care as much as they should do, and that we're not calling this out and challenging this as much as we should do. 

That narrative — that normalisation — has to change. And we all have a part to play to make that happen. We all need to take collective responsibility on a day-to-day basis and do what we can to contribute to changing this narrative on a national level.

That’s why, each year, we hold Road Safety Week. It’s our biggest annual road safety campaign which always takes place in the third week of November.

This year, our theme is: "After the crash, every road victim counts." 

We must all take personal responsibility for road safety

We've chosen to put road victims at the heart of this year's campaign to raise awareness of the devastating toll of road crashes and to celebrate the work of the incredible number of people who come together every day to support families after a road death or serious injury. 

At the forefront of our Road Safety Week activity, Brake will be leading on the development of a road victim charter calling on our new government to provide sustainable funding and parity of care for road victims and their families, whoever they are, wherever they live, and whether or not a crime has occurred. 

We'll also be sharing the voices and lived experiences of road victims and showcasing the work of Brake's National Road Victim Service throughout the week. We will bring communities together to remember loved ones who have died or suffered life-changing injuries. 

There are lots of ways for people to get involved and to support and to engage throughout the week. The more people that we can get involved — the louder we can shout — the better the outcomes. You can find out more about how to take part in this year’s event by visiting our website here. 

* Samsara is a supporting member of Brake. As part of that commitment, Samsara sponsors Brake’s annual Fleet Champions Awards aimed at safety-conscious fleet operators, suppliers, manufacturers and individuals to recognise the achievements of those working to prevent crashes and reduce pollution caused by work vehicles. Samsara also provides a significant funding stream for the charity.