A road safety seminar exploring new ways to deliver cost-effective road safety programmes will be hosted by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) on March 7, 2013 at Conference Aston in Birmingham.

With road fatalities showing their first increase since 2003, and with significantly reduced resources available for road safety, the RoSPA Road Safety Seminar will examine the potential for new technologies, engagement methods, and ways of working.

The event, sponsored by Britax, will be the safety charity's 78th annual gathering for road safety researchers, practitioners and policymakers. The programme will explore the following themes: 

• The power of using social media to spread essential road safety messages
• The benefits of adopting black box technology to record driver behaviour - especially young and at-work drivers - monitoring areas such as braking, acceleration and vehicle location
• The implications that the new public health framework - centred on the new Health and Wellbeing Boards - will have on the setting and delivery of road safety objectives in England

Guest speakers who will outline presentations on the above themes include Kevin Clinton, road safety manager at RoSPA, who will reveal how black box technology can be harnessed to improve safety for vulnerable road users; Ruth Gore, marketing officer at Safer Roads Humber (East Riding of Yorkshire Council), who will provide a case study on the ‘Think B4U Drink’ campaign, and how it aims to influence behaviours and attitudes towards drink driving; and Richard Jelbert, chief technology officer for MyDrive Solutions, who will provide an example of current and forthcoming black box schemes for young and at-work drivers.

Kevin Clinton, RoSPA's head of road safety, said: "The detailed figures for 2011 for Great Britain, published by the Department for Transport (DfT), show that road deaths rose by 3% from 1,850 in 2010 to 1,901 in 2011.

"These figures must be taken as an opportunity to revise the way we work to make roads safer. It is a chance for road safety professionals and the new ministerial team at the DfT to come together and discuss the way forward.

"As road safety practitioners continue to be asked to do ‘more for less', this seminar will be examining how effective results can still be achieved and looking at new technologies, engagement methods and ways of working. It is not to be missed."