Road Safety Week

We’ve been leading on a poster campaign on behalf of the Optical Confederation (OC) who joins forces with charity Brake for their annual event Road Safety Week. 

We’re asking members to support the campaign by displaying the poster, which features in the November edition of OT, in their practices ahead of the awareness week and sharing our digital content.

The OC and Brake poster, which couples sight test with the common driving instruction ‘Mirror, signal, manoeuvre’, highlights that good eyesight is a vital part of driving and safety on the road.

Road Safety Week which takes place 21 – 27 November is the UK's biggest road safety event.

This year's theme is ‘Make the Brake Pledge’ focusing on six simple elements to make our roads safer – with sharp vision as one of the vital checks for drivers.    

Outgoing chairman of the OC, Chris Hunt, said: “The Optical Confederation has long felt that the relationship between road safety and vision needs to have greater visibility within the public and that is why we are fully committed to driving up awareness for Road Safety Week in 2016.    

“The optical community is one that fully understands the importance of having properly assessed vision as a pre-requisite for driving on our roads. Good sight affects all aspects of driving, including crucially reaction and braking times, which in turn has safety implications not only for the driver themselves but for passengers and others on the road.  We are therefore calling on all practitioners and manufacturers to enthusiastically get behind the promotion of this very important issue."

Read more about our work on vision and driving in the perspectives article featured in this month’s OT.