Vehicle technology: a guide for the perplexed

RoSPA was lucky enough to have on work placement a young man by the name of Ajinkya Bhalerao. He joined the road safety department for a couple of weeks back in July to complete a project on vehicle technology. He did a superb job, impressed us all immensely, and agreed to write a blog for us – duly presented below!

Ajinkya, Duncan Vernon and Cassius Francis

Before I arrived at RoSPA, I was slightly unsure as to how my desired career path (of becoming an engineer) would fit-in with the company. However, under the wise guidance of Duncan Vernon, I settled to create what would eventually be called “Car Safety Technology: A Car Buyer’s Guide”.

The “Guide”, now completed, does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin, that is to say it translates obscure terminology (which incidentally car manufacturers love to show off) into layman’s terms which ordinary folk like you and I can comprehend.

Since safety is of such paramount importance in nearly everything we do, it’s of no surprise that car safety technology is continually advancing and developing. The problem arises when prospective car buyers become flustered by their inability to cope with the mystifying terms that surround the topic.

I hope that in having finished the guide, it will someday see the light of day, for at present I’m afraid to say that, due to copyright reasons, RoSPA can’t really release the guide, well … not unless it can somehow withstand the “lawpower” of a multi-national corporation like BMW. That said, I hear that members of RoSPA Birmingham are hard at work in trying to salvage the guide’s contents and use non-copyright images, so I suppose there’s still a shred of hope in seeing it reach the public. After all, it would be such a shame if the guide, which was meant to help the public, never actually made it.

Apart from that, I found the work experience placement at RoSPA to be brilliant, and I’d recommend it to anyone who, like I did, wanted to get a taste of how life was like in a pretty large organisation. Since safety encompasses literally all the things we do, the fact that RoSPA’s mainly for safety doesn’t mean that the career path you’d wish to follow can’t somehow be addressed in some sort of project. RoSPA staff really helped me out in choosing an idea which would be stimulating, whilst at the same time tailored to my needs of going into engineering.

Apart from receiving a heavy dosage of “office life” (and of all the thrills and joys you’d expect to be associated with it), I was pleasantly surprised to find that the world of work was by no means as daunting or as treacherous as I had previously conceived. I was relieved to be in the company of understanding and down-to-earth people during my placement, so there was of course no military-style discipline whilst I was there. That said, they helped motivate me to push myself and actually complete the guide, for which I am very grateful since now I have something solid and substantial which I can show to anyone interested in the placement. I hope it will prove that I actually sat down and got to work whilst at RoSPA, and didn’t do “filing” or “secretarial tasks” in that time. I’m sure that, having completed this placement, I’ll be in a stronger position to advance and succeed in my future career.

As previously mentioned I aspire to one day be an engineer, and am planning on going to university to attain the relevant degree. That is, after I’ve finished my A-Levels, which I’m currently in the process of doing. I still haven’t made my mind-up as to which particular field of engineering I’d like to go into, so I suppose I’ll have to decide. By next September, at least, which gives me oceans of time to ponder and choose. I’m not too sure what I’ll actually end-up doing, though. But thanks to my placement with RoSPA, I’m more familiar and “clued-in” with the world of work.

Ajinkya Bhalerao, 16, work experience student with RoSPA

The RoSPA road safety team is currently sourcing copyright-free images of the different vehicle technologies that Ajinkya wrote about in the guide and hopes to put it on the website soon – watch this space…

Is there an app for that?

Do you have an interest in child car seats? Have you bought a car seat in the past, or do you need to buy one, and are baffled by the choice?

We at RoSPA would like to know what you think about the process of buying child car seats, with a view to making it easier for parents and carers to choose the correct seat for their needs.

Please spare a few moments to visit www.childcarseats.org.uk and take part in our online survey. As a token of our gratitude, we’ll enter you into a draw to win an iTunes voucher.

Thank you!

Lighting Up Time

Since I started to learn about the daylight saving issue some five years ago, I have racked my brain to think of any other government measure that would improve the lives of everyone in the UK, at no cost, and I just can’t think of one. It would make us:

• Healthier – because we would have more evening daylight to take exercise and be outside
• Wealthier – because we would save money on electricity, inject £3billion into the economy through tourism and create 60,000 new jobs (if ever we needed that fillip, now is the time)
• More secure – because our elderly would have an hour shorter winter “curfew” and evening crime would fall
• Safer – because 80 lives would be saved on the roads per year and 212 serious injuries avoided
• Greener – because we would reduce our carbon emissions by 450,000 tons per year, equivalent to 85 per cent of all the renewable energy we currently generate, enough to power two-thirds of Glasgow
• Happier – because it is uplifting to have more evening daylight, just as it is depressing to have less.

Never has an idea offered so much potential to benefit so many and yet been repeatedly stifled by so few. Even in Scotland, where opposition is traditionally strongest, public opinion is no longer against it – and yet it still does not happen.

Lighter evenings are good for all

At a time of extraordinary government spending cuts, you would think that politicians would read the 2009 Department for Transport report which showed that the implementation of this measure would cost the department £5million but save £138million that year and every year thereafter. Multiplied across government departments and local authorities, we could surely be shaving billions off the public budget, and saving many jobs.

And yet Rebecca Harris’s (MP for Castle Point) Private Members’ Bill, which seeks to define that impact (just measure the costs and benefits within government and only implement the changes, on a trial basis, if the evidence supports it), is grinding through Parliament as though the machinery of the state is deliberately thwarting its progress.

The truth is that no UK party seems willing to risk its Scottish vote by promoting this issue, not least because there is clearly some goading from north of the border. Try to impose this on Scotland, they imagine, and the nationalists will whip up anti-English/Union fervour such that the three “main” parties would have an unwelcome fight on their hands, which may weaken their share of the vote, especially while talk of a referendum is rife. Leave well alone, they assess, and their political foes will have one less divisive issue to trumpet.

So we may as well say it for what it is: A political calculation at a senior level taking away these potential benefits from 60million people, so that party electoral stability, and the (notional) strength of the Union, can be protected, or at least not put to the test.

For us in the 60million and for the 128 MPs who voted for this Bill at its second reading (bravo to them and if it ever came to a truly “free” vote, that number would probably quadruple), it is just shameful evidence of a hidden hand of manipulative control at the top.

And if I read angry, it’s because that deliberate obfuscation has cost the lives of more than 5,000 people and resulted in the serious injury of more than 30,000 people in our country, since the 1968-71 experiment proved that it would work. The word “shameful” seems incredibly measured and desperately inadequate.

Surely the cohesion of the Union, a far more strategic issue, should be decoupled from this simple, straightforward attempt to improve the quality of life of everyone in the UK? The Prime Minister laudably argued in Manchester last week that the most important quality in politics is leadership. Here is an opportunity for him to show us what it looks like.

Tom Mullarkey, RoSPA’s chief executive

For more information about our lighter evenings campaign, visit our campaign website – and please sign up to support the cause! http://www.rospa.com/about/currentcampaigns/lighter-evenings/default.aspx

Check your vehicle out! A new RoSPA video

After the unseasonable mini-heatwave of last week, autumn is back. The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is upon us, bringing with it the promise of winter – and so perhaps now is a good time to remind ourselves of some basic vehicle checks that can save time, money and possibly pain.

We all know that there are regular checks we should make to our cars; but how many of us know exactly what they are and how to do them? Not to mention whether they are done regularly at all.

But a few minutes spent making a few simple checks can identify potential problems before they cost motorists money. Plus, there’s the peace of mind that your vehicle is reliable and safe.

Kevin Clinton, RoSPA’s head of road safety, has made a short film outlining the vehicle checks we should all be making on a regular basis – as well as reminding us how often they should be carried out.

One for the road?

Despite 30 years of drink drive education and enforcement, around 100,000 people are still caught drink driving annually, and five people die in drink drive accidents every week.

Northern Ireland’s environment minister, Alex Attwood, last week outlined his proposals to change the drink-driving laws. The most significant changes would include:

• Cutting the blood alcohol limit from the current level of 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood to 50mg/100ml
• Introducing another, lower, limit of 20mg/100ml for young drivers and people who earn their living from driving
• Giving the police powers to randomly stop drivers without the need for reasonable suspicion
• In certain circumstances, removing drivers’ right to opt for a blood or urine sample instead of a breath test.

The Scotland bill may give the Scottish Government the power to set the drink-drive limit in Scotland if it is not lowered in England and Wales, with the majority (79 per cent) of people in Scotland supporting a lower limit.

Although on the face of it the ideal limit is zero alcohol in the blood, we do not believe that this is literally possible, as a small amount of alcohol is found in some cough syrups and mouthwashes and can be produced naturally by bacteria in the gut after certain foods have been eaten. Therefore, talk of a zero limit usually means 20mg/100ml, not 0mg/100ml. However, this is not achievable in a single leap from the current limit of 80mg.

RoSPA believes the best option is a reduction to 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.

We would like your views on the UK’s drink-driving laws: please take a moment to answer the questions below. If you’d like to comment further on the proposals, please make use of the comments facility – join the debate!

Kevin Clinton, RoSPA’s head of road safety