Speed Awareness Course
A recent survey of clients attending Speed Awareness Courses revealed the following results:
94% of those questioned found the SAC to be extremely or very useful overall;
87% definitely feel that the SAC has changed the way they think about speeding;
86% feel that the SAC is the right length of time;
49% found the fact file extremely or very useful, with a further 38% finding it fairly useful.
Download an information leaflet 
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The
scheme is based on referrals from the Lancashire Constabulary and is administered
by the Road Safety Group.
The course instruction is delivered by suitably qualified and experienced Approved Driving Instructors (ADIs) who have been specially trained to deliver the course.
Each course, which is of 6-7 hours duration, involves both classroom-based activities and in-car training and aims to explore the possible reasons why drivers exceed speed limits and to try to prevent future recurrence.
The scheme, which has been running since 2001, provides an alternative to prosecution involving the payment of a fee and completion of a Speed Awareness Course. If, for some reason, the course is not completed (and this is very rare) prosecution should normally follow. A fine and the possibility of prosecution should provide the necessary incentive for the driver to make a success of the re-training.
Completion of a Speed Awareness Course is a direct alternative to prosecution resulting from excess speed arising from errors of judgement. Offences arising from deliberate or reckless actions should result in prosecution.
By the end of a course drivers should be able to identify:
- what causes drivers to speed
- the disadvantages of speeding
- the consequences of misusing speed
- different speed limit areas, and
- demonstrate the correct use of speed for a variety of hazards
Background
Road
crashes cause immense human suffering. Every year around 3,500 people are killed
on Britain's roads and 40,000 are seriously injured. In total there are over
300,000 road casualties, in nearly 240,000 crashes and collisions and approximately
fifteen times that number of non-injury crashes. This is at a massive cost to
society in the region of 3 billion a year.
With this in mind the government has seen fit to set new targets to address these issues and achieve a substantial improvement in road safety over the next ten years. The targets are as follows:-
- a 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents
- a 50% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured
- a 10% reduction in the slight casualty rate, expressed as the number of people slightly injured per 100 million vehicle kilometres
It is well documented that speed, or inappropriate speed contributes to a significant percentage of all crashes and a higher percentage of more serious crashes. Moreover, it is anticipated that in a year excessive and inappropriate speed kills around 1,200 people and injures over 100,000 more, this is the largest contributor to casualties on the road. The probability of being seriously injured in a collision rises significantly with small increases in changes of impact speed.
For more information telephone the Road Safety Group on 01772 534642 or visit the Association of National Driver Improvement Scheme Providers (ANDISP) website (external link).
Course Evaluation
The evaluation of the scheme was undertaken by Dr Michelle Meadows of Staffordshire University, the research findings are available here:
Steve Stradling, Professor of Transport Pschycology, Napier University, recently attended a course as a 'mystery shopper'. His report is available here:
Dr Lisa Dorn, Director of Driving Research Unit, Cranfield University attended a Speed Awareness Course to provide feedback on structure and content of the course.
Complaints
A small number of complaints have been received by the Road Safety Group. You can view the nature of the complaints and the outcomes here.
