Campaign for road safety adverts

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Elbie

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I'm inspired after ranting on someones post about bad drivers. Ages ago for a very short lived period they showed an advert on how to pass horses safely. How do we campaign to get these back?

They show graphic adverts for bike and car accidents, how about they do the same? Maybe it will knock some sense into idiots who don't see any harm in speeding past a horse?
 
i got in touch with the BHS a while ago re-their campaign and was told that the cost was the prohibitive factor... but i agree, they should have these adverts on at peak times of the day. no idea as to how to get it done - badger H&H and see if they take up the challenge?
 
alj7 said:
i got in touch with the BHS a while ago re-their campaign and was told that the cost was the prohibitive factor... but i agree, they should have these adverts on at peak times of the day. no idea as to how to get it done - badger H&H and see if they take up the challenge?
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Good idea!
 
I agree that something needs to be done. I think part of the problem is ignorance, but unfortunatley i think that there are a number of drivers who really don't like us, how do we change that attitude? I do get the feeling sometimes when I am hacking that some of the drivers would really like to kill me ! There are also a lot of people who do slow down to whom I say a big thank you.
 
Funny you should say that. Myself and my daughter were on a residential road on Wednesday when there was a car coming towards us and she then heard another car coming up behing. Neither would give way and she had to sharply get on pavement else the one behind us was not going to stop. Fortunately he lived along the road. As he went by I had shouted out you idiot. when he got out of his car he said what did you call me. I told him and he said you should not be on the road. My reply was where do you suggest we should be. He replied on Forest. thats where we were going. Then he proceeded to call us names because we were on horses. If it were not for the quick reaction of my daughter her horse would have been mown down. A few months ago on another residential road some twit came by us at 75mph tooting his horn. Thought it was funny. Because he had a personalised number plate we found where he lived. One police station was not interested but a lovely lady PC. took it up and is doing something about it. Her colleagues thought she was mad taking on a horse incident but she said it was the way I had written the report. Recently a lady in this area and two horses had been killed by a speeding driver and I had said that I did not want to become another statistic.
 
The cost of TV advertising is unbelievably HUGE - tens of thousands of pounds just to show the ad, never mind making it. Awareness raising is necessary, but it is to my mind unrealistic to expect a charity to fund it all themselves. However by collecting stats, hopefully a good case can be made to get adverts funded or part-funded by government.
 
Would love to know how the think bike campaign is funded. Irritated the heck out of me seeing those posters in our area when the motorcycles ride like such nutters. Thinking bike doesn't help a bit when they insist upon overtaking on a solid white line at twice the speed limit.........

If tv adverts are too expensive what about posters or radio adverts.
 
surely there is some creative people out there who could put together a video of some sorts to put on facebook and youtube to set the ball rolling
i also think we need to educate horse riders as well as to the correct and safe way to behave on the road and some how tackle the attitude that horses just should not be on the roads at all.
 
I would be behind any campaign on road safety as l think it`s well over due. And l think as well all drivers should be aware of how to deal with horses on the roads.
 
I have to say I think horse riders should be more aware of the fact that some drivers can feel this way about them - I am a horse rider and a driver and when hacking I ALWAYS say thank you to drivers, even if they don't slow down (which they invariably do). Contrasted to when my sister and I were driving down a busy 40mph main road (with a fairly wide verge) and two women were hacking their horses down the road, two abreast. I am aware that they are allowed to ride down this road 2 abreast, but they had washing line reins, and were chatting away to each other, gesturing with their arms and watching each other instead of the cars going by. Every single car that went by them slowed down to around 25-30mph and they didn't thank a single one. The only time they even looked at the cars was when I shouted at them out the window that they were ignorant cows, and they looked pretty shocked. Why the hell should I, in my car, take responsibility for this sort of horse rider when they clearly don't give a damn about their own safety? Save your chatting for when you're in the fields and on bridleways and bloody well watch what you're doing and mind your manners when you're on the roads! Another time I was out hacking with my instructor and sister, when 2 other riders came off a bridleway and rode a few metres behind us on the road (country lane). A car came up behind so we pulled our horses into a pull-over and they rode on by, thanking us for pulling over to let them by?! We pointed out there was a car behind trying to get past and they just carried on at a slow walk. Horseriders don't have any more right to be on the road than a car driver so its about time the minority stopped acting like they do! A riding road safety campaign is a great idea but it needs to go both ways
 
ngrace said:
How can we make boy racers in particular more aware of why we are on roads, and how dangerous it is to speed past horses/be agressive?
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at my rural college, there were posters in the library, computer rooms and any other noticeboards around the college, of the aftermath of an RTA of horse vs car. Shocking and horrific, but seemed to have the desired effect on the 'boy racer' types at our college.

also to quote Cloball - "surely there is some creative people out there who could put together a video of some sorts to put on facebook and youtube to set the ball rolling"

the BHS have their riding and road safety video posted on youtube, which is aimed at non-horsey drivers on how to pass horses on the road.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TguLKMJjso
This is the one that was shown on tv a while ago as i discussed in my other thread.

Spudlet, i agree that the cost to show these adverts must be massive, and i think the BHS tries to do an awful lot for the equestrian community and therefore would definitely be unable to fund such a campaign. whilst it would be fantastic to have such a campaign on tv, the sad truth is that we make up such a small amount of the population that on the grander scale of things, we are much lower down the list.

On the plus side, i went to my local show yesterday and there was a council-funded stand simply promoting riding and road safety, the use of hi viz and safe procedures for drivers when encountering horses on the road. We get alot of tourists in the area who come to the show, along with the farmers, trotters, general horsey people, and this show is where all the local lads and 'boy racers' go simply for the beer so i was pleasantly surprised to see it and see people in there!
 
The "Think!" road safety compaign appears to be government funded and they do have a section on how to pass horses safely:
http://think.direct.gov.uk/horses.html

I suppose that as according to their figures one rider was killed on the roads in 2009 and 21 seriously injured but the same year nearly 500 motorcyclists died and over 5000 were seriously injured they are always going to prioritise motorcycle awareness.

There is a contact email for their marketing department:

dftpublicity@dft.gsi.gov.uk

Perhaps if lots of us emailed suggesting a prime time advert advising motorists how to pass horses then we might get somewhere.
 
BUMP!!!!

WHAT AN EXCELLENT POST!!

i think drivers need to be also made aware of WHY they must pass wide and slow. I dont think non horse-riders realise how horses are affected by cars flying by (ie. they can spook and go in all directione etc)
 
alj7 said:
at my rural college, there were posters in the library, computer rooms and any other noticeboards around the college, of the aftermath of an RTA of horse vs car. Shocking and horrific, but seemed to have the desired effect on the 'boy racer' types at our college.

also to quote Cloball - "surely there is some creative people out there who could put together a video of some sorts to put on facebook and youtube to set the ball rolling"

the BHS have their riding and road safety video posted on youtube, which is aimed at non-horsey drivers on how to pass horses on the road.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TguLKMJjso
This is the one that was shown on tv a while ago as i discussed in my other thread.

Spudlet, i agree that the cost to show these adverts must be massive, and i think the BHS tries to do an awful lot for the equestrian community and therefore would definitely be unable to fund such a campaign. whilst it would be fantastic to have such a campaign on tv, the sad truth is that we make up such a small amount of the population that on the grander scale of things, we are much lower down the list.

On the plus side, i went to my local show yesterday and there was a council-funded stand simply promoting riding and road safety, the use of hi viz and safe procedures for drivers when encountering horses on the road. We get alot of tourists in the area who come to the show, along with the farmers, trotters, general horsey people, and this show is where all the local lads and 'boy racers' go simply for the beer so i was pleasantly surprised to see it and see people in there!
Click to expand...

I think they need to use shock tactics. Not sure everyone appreciates what it would be like to have a horse on the their car, or hit one, or cause someone to have a severe accident. I used to work for one of the 'main' equine insurers and seeing some photos of horse RTA's...awful
 
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