Jon wins national safety prize

An Arriva risk manager has won a top award.

Jon Sweet picked up the prize of “2006 Road RiskManager of the Year” from road safety charity Brake.

Jon, who works for Arriva the Shires and Essex, was nominatedfor his campaign designed to increase driver awareness and developa culture of road safety.

As part of his winning project he simulated accidents using olddouble decker buses and cars at both Luton and Watford garages.

Fire crews then attended the 'scene' and in front of on lookingdrivers rescued crash test dummies from the wreckage.

As a result of the whole campaign, accidents involving drivererror have gone down 30 per cent.

Jon said:

It is a real honour to get this award and it representsa lot of hard work from a number of people.

It is a fantastic achievement that means a lot to meand everyone involved.

Jon picked up his prize as Brake named an award in honour of aformer colleague who was killed last year.

Kevin Storey, 38, who worked for Arriva North West at Aintree,died of massive head injuries when his Ford Focus was struck at60mph by a van, while he was parked in the lay-by off the A50 inStaffordshire in May 2005.

He had also previously won the UK risk manager of the Year andonly days after the accident Kevin was posthumously awarded theRoSPA Gold Award for his outstanding achievement in the reductionof accidents at Arriva over a four year period.

Jon added:

Kevin was a fantastic risk manager and someone we alllooked to for inspiration. Kevin set the bench mark for all of usat Arriva. It was a very emotional night for everyone atArriva.

Arriva the Shires and Essex managing director Keith Spicersaid:

We are all very proud of Jon and he really deservesthis award.

Safety of staff and passengers is the number onepriority for Arriva and Jon's work really does savelives.

It is especially poignant in light of our formercolleague Kevin Storey's death.

The fact that an award has been named in his honourshows what a contribution he made to safety.

Ends

Notes to editors

• Arriva is one of the largest private sector providers ofpassenger transport in mainland Europe, employing nearly 33,000people and providing more than one billion passenger journeys everyyear.
• Arriva provides transport services including buses, trains,commuter coaches and water buses in eight European countries:Denmark, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Swedenand the UK.
• Arriva is the largest private bus operator in Italy, Denmarkand the Netherlands and is London's largest bus operator.
• Revenue from Arriva's mainland European operations has trebledin the past five years to £621.2 million.
• Arriva was the first UK transport company to become a signatoryof the European Road Safety Charter –http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/roadsafety/charter.htm.