FREE road safety event returns to Northampton park

A poignant memorial to those who lost their lives on the county’s roads last year will again be the focal point of a FREE multi-agency road safety event at Abington Park in Northampton.

The event has been organised by Northamptonshire Police Roads Policing officer PC Emilie Bunkall as part of this year’s annual RoadPeace Challenge (May 13-19), which aims to raise awareness of the devastating impact of road collisions.

Emilie has created the powerful display which will be made up of 29 black silhouettes of road users, signifying the true cost of road collisions in our county – the lives which have been lost and those that have been changed for ever.

Alongside the silhouettes will be 242 doves, with each bird representing someone who sustained a serious injury on our roads, and 1,318 county flags to mark the number of people who received a minor injury in a collision.

Emilie knows first-hand of the devastating impact and heartbreak a road death has on those left behind after her mum Julie was killed in a collision on the A6 at Burton Latimer in 2013, and it is this very personal experience which has been the driving force behind her work.

Members of the public will be able to visit the display in the week leading up to the FREE road safety event, which will be held at the park’s Wellingborough Road entrance between 10am and 2pm on Saturday, May 18.

Following the success of the inaugural event in 2023, this year’s community event is expected to be bigger and better with more interactive road safety activities for visitors to get involved with including the Road Haulage Association simulator and Wickes safety truck.

The Safer Roads Team will have one of its enforcement safety camera vans in situ for people to check their running speeds, while visitors can test reactions on a Batak machine as well as feel the sensation of the effects of alcohol and sleep deprivation through beer goggles.

There will also be stalls providing lots of road safety advice from Northamptonshire Safer Roads Alliance partners – Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service, the Institute of Advance Motorists, National Highways, West Northamptonshire Council’s highways team and East Midlands Ambulance Service.

Members of the Northampton Neighbourhood Policing Team will be security marking pedal cycles at the community beat bus and the Rural Crime Team will be joined by Volunteers on Horseback and Mower Man, to highlight road safety on country roads.

Visitors, both young and old, can check out emergency vehicles from Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service, East Midlands Ambulance Service and the Force’s Roads Policing Team and motorcycle policing team, which delivers the Bike Safe events.

The road safety event is just one of the activities Emilie has organised to show her support for the RoadPeace Challenge, to raise awareness of the road death endemic in the UK and the devastation caused to families and communities every day.

Between Monday and Friday, Emilie will run, cycle, and walk along a different route each day in memory of the people who lost their lives on the county’s roads last year before joining the Wickes Safety Truck team at a primary school to deliver key road safety messages to pupils.

This is the fourth year Emilie has pledged her support to the RoadPeace Challenge, which not only raises vital funds for the road victims’ charity, but more crucially, aims to get the public talking about the impact of road deaths.