Project EDWARD
Gwent Police is joining forces from across the UK in participating in an operation to reduce the number of fatalities on roads across Europe.
‘Project EDWARD’ – which stands for ‘Every Day Without A Road Death’ is a European Roads Policing Network (Roadpol) operation. It is aimed at reducing road deaths, this year’s theme is around driving for work and the operation runs from Monday 14 September to Sunday 20 September.
In line with the theme for 2020, Gwent Police officers will be engaging with communities and highlighting road risk, particularly as more vehicles return to routes.
The force will also remind motorists about avoiding the ‘Fatal 5’ - drink and drug driving; speed; careless driving; seatbelt non-compliance and mobile phone use while driving.
Police and Crime Commissioner Jeff Cuthbert is a road safety lead for the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners. He said, “The odds of being involved in a collision resulting in injury or death while driving for work are about 1 in 500.
“With thousands of work-related journeys taking place in Gwent every day the sad reality is that our emergency services are dealing with these incidents on a regular basis. All of them could have been avoided.
“Now, more than ever, we need to do our part to stay safe and keep the emergency services available for those who need them most, so please take extra care and stay safe on the roads.”
As part of the awareness week, which will involve awareness and enforcement activities at locations across the force area, Gwent Police will be working with several partners to promote road safety including HMRC, VOSA and GoSafe.
The partner organisations will be looking at issues such as speeding, vehicle maintenance, driver fatigue, overloading vehicles, driver behaviour and towing for work, throughout the week.
Further information on ‘Project EDWARD’ can be found here.