Road Safety Week is the UK’s biggest road safety event, involving thousands of schools, organisations and community groups every year. Set up in 1997, the event is coordinated annually by Brake (the road safety charity) each November, and aims to encourage grassroots action on road safety and raise awareness about the part we can all play in preventing tragedies and making roads safer.

Police in Norfolk and Suffolk are urging all road users to look out for one another in support of Brake Road Safety Week. This year the national campaign, which runs between 17 and 23 November, is calling on all road users to be considerate and look out for one another.

Drivers are being urged to take extra time at junctions, to look twice and take it slow on bends while cyclists and pedestrians are urged to make sure they can be seen and not to take chances.

Roads policing officers from both counties will be taking part in events to educate road users and raise awareness of how everyone can improve their own safety on the road. They will also carry out roadside checks throughout the week with a particular focus on vehicle defect offences involving lights and tyres.

Chief Inspector Chris Spinks, head of the Norfolk and Suffolk Roads Policing Unit, said:

“Road users, be it car drivers, riders, pedestrians or cyclists, all have a responsibility to make sure they stay focused when travelling throughout the counties.

“It is vital people give the road their full attention and know what is happening around them. Road users who fail to do this stand a greater chance of being involved in a collision, which can have serious or fatal consequences.”

Road safety events in Norfolk will be held at RAF Marham, RAF Honington and the College of West Anglia involving the young driver education team and the display Lotus.

Meanwhile, in Suffolk officers from the county’s 29 safer neighbourhood teams will be supporting the “Let’s look out for each other” campaign and handing out sets of bike lights.

A motorcycle safety event will be held at Otley College while sessions focusing on road safety and distraction will be performed in schools to year seven pupils.