News and Events
Around the Corner awarded prestigious honour
October 31, 2011
ATC presented with award
Around the Corner, motorcycle safety campaign has been awarded the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award (PMIRSA) in recognition of the outstanding contribution it has made to improve road safety in the Motorcycle Industries Award category.
In 2007, Around the Corner was created to reduce the number of motorcyclists being killed and seriously injured on Scottish Borders roads. By 2009 fatalities had reduced by 60 per cent there. The campaign was adopted by several other Police Forces in Scotland and in 2010 was recognised by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland. For the 2011 motorcycle season it became the first Scottish national motorcycle safety campaign.
In essence it is a campaign by Bikers for Bikers – encouraging safe riding by utilising a believable peer group and interactive technology to enforce the road safety messages.
Around the Corner spokesperson, Sandy Allan said:
“On behalf of Around the Corner I’m delighted to accept this award. Many people over a long period of time have worked incredibly hard to make Around the Corner a success. When Around the Corner was first devised, the goal was to reduce the number of bikers in our area being killed and seriously injured. A number of enforcement interventions had limited impact and often simply dispersed the problem”.
In seeking a solution, Around the Corner, an intervention to develop education through positive interaction and encouragement was devised.
He added,
“Police motorcyclists skills are universally held in high regard within the biker community. In a complete change of tact, our motorcyclists started visiting recognised biker ‘stops’ across the area to share their skills and give of their local knowledge to encourage safe riding. This instantly broke down barriers and raised awareness of local roads and rider safety”.
Sgt. Kenny Brown, of the motorcycle section said:
“The key to making Around the Corner a success is communicating with riders who choose to visit Scotland. Bikers tend to go for runs in areas other than where they stay; so localised information sharing prior to such trips has limited impact. Research highlighted our target audience were computer literate. As a solution, the Around the Corner website was born. The website is updated on regular basis, informing riders of any issues, i.e. local information and events, riding tips to improve observations and anticipations leading to an overall increase in safer riding, weather updates, road conditions, road works and a variety of other useful information. Part of our interaction is to encourage riders to take advanced training thus improving their awareness of how vulnerable they can be when on two-wheels. The website gives bikers the best possible start to any planned run - information direct from a local professional and biking enthusiast”.
The award was presented on Prince Michael’s behalf by by Rt. Hon. Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, chairman of The Commission for Road Safety during the Road Safety Scotland Seminar at Dunblane.