MPA runs York Cycle Safe event
Association invited to run event to launch Chief Fire Officer Association’s UK Road Safety Week
ON Monday 9 June, the Mineral Products Association (MPA) ran a successful Cycle Safe event in Parliament Square, York, with support from association member Lafarge Tarmac, who provided a large goods vehicle (LGV) and other assistance.
The MPA was invited to run the event by North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service, to launch the Chief Fire Officer Association’s (CFOA) UK Road Safety Week, which ran from 9–15 June 2014.
The event, which took place a month or so before York became the Grand Départ city for Stage 2 of the Tour de France, was attended by Transport Minister Robert Goodwill MP, as well as did Dave Etheridge, road safety lead for CFOA, and Honor Byford, chair of Road Safety GB.
Several cyclists and members of the public stopped to talk about their experiences on the road and sat in the driver’s cab to gain this perspective of the road and learn about where to position themselves safely when cycling close to lorries. The event supported the MPA’s Cycle Safe campaign, launched in 2011, to prevent collisions between cyclists and lorries.
MPA communications manager Hilary Arrowsmith said: ‘The MPA jumped at the chance to run a Cycle Safe event in York to launch UK Road Safety Week. The Association has run events in a number of towns and cities across the country and is keen to roll the campaign out to the regions.
‘With York as the Grand Départ city for Stage 2 of the Tour de France 2014 and the interest this generated in cycling in the area, we felt it was a key location for a Cycle Safe event. It was an added bonus that we were able to tie this into the launch of CFOA’s UK Road Safety Week, which is a very worthwhile and valuable initiative.’
The MPA has recently extended its vulnerable road user safety policy for its members, to correspond to the construction industry’s Construction Logistics & Cycle Safety (CLOCS) Standard, but says it is only through all parties (drivers, companies, cyclists, police and regulators) working together that securing the safety of vulnerable road users, including cyclists, can most effectively be pursued and achieved.
