The Invisibles (campaign)

The Gloucestershire Road Safety Partnership launched this campaign to improve awareness and reduce the number of ‘failed to look or see’ crashes on the county’s roads.

‘The Invisibles’ campaign targets drivers, motorcyclists and cyclists, in response to figures which show that ‘failing to look properly’ figured in 45% of crashes across the UK in 2012 – and is the number one contributory factor in collisions in Gloucestershire. The term describes when the person didn’t properly look where they were going, or they looked but misinterpreted what they saw. These collisions are most likely to occur at urban road junctions in daylight during the hours people are travelling to work in the morning and on their journey home.

The partnership says that the road users most likely to be killed or seriously injured in these collisions are male motorcyclists and male cyclists aged 20-49 years. It also points to statistics which show that the fatality rate for motorcyclists is three times higher than for cyclists, and 40 times higher than for car drivers.

The Invisibles, which ran in August/September 2014, includes a media campaign and education programme delivered to local businesses. The partnership also issued specific targeted advice to help drivers, motorcyclists and cyclists remain safe.