The prestigious Laurie Bunn Road Safety Award 2012 was presented to Keith Filby, Road Safety and Smarter Travel Officer from the London Borough of Merton for his work on the Borough’s ‘Be a Brighter Biker’ Project.

The Brighter Bike scheme comprises a 3 hours classroom session taking riders from the initial ‘ light bulb’ moment to completion of the rider driving test, as part of the classroom session participants receive a free CBT (Compulsory Basic Training) day with an approved rider training school.

The Be a Better Biker scheme also comprises a classroom session where riders have the opportunity to share experiences and best practice and a video presentation showing advanced riding techniques. Following the classroom session participants receive a free Bikesafe / Scootersafe training day provided by experienced Metropolitan police riders.

The judging panel was chaired by David Williams MBE, Chief Executive of GEM Motoring Assist who also presented Keith with his award. David said “Keith thoroughly deserves this award for the hard work and dedication he has shown in devising and implementing the Be a Brighter Biker initiative.” He went on to say “Local Government is facing financial restraints, the like of which have never been faced before. It is gratifying that so many road safety officers made an effort to promote the Laurie Bunn Award, we had an amazing 11 entries all demonstrating commitment to and innovation in road safety education, training and publicity . Each fatality on Britain’s roads costs the nation almost £2 million. The need for effective road safety measures such as those demonstrated in these nominations is greater than ever”.

Background The London Road Safety Council was first established in 1916. It is the only forum in London where elected members and road safety professional’s work together to develop plans and proposals to raise awareness of road safety issues.

Based on information supplied by James Parker.