NRSI was a short term initative funded by the Department for Transport that has now concluded.
Information about the work done by NRSI can be found on this website.
More general information can be found on the Department for Transport’s website at www.dft.gov.uk.
If you have a specific query about NRSI or the Department for Transport’s related work on road safety, please e-mail road.safety@dft.gsi.gov.uk.
Background to NRSI
The Neighbourhood Road Safety Initiative (NRSI) has been set up to find fresh and innovative ways to reduce road casualties, particularly those involving children.
Research has found that children from disadvantaged backgrounds are five times more likely to be killed or seriously injured on our roads than their peers from the least deprived areas.
To tackle this, The Department for Transport launched the Neighbourhood Road Safety Initiative (NRSI) as part of the Government’s Dealing With Disadvantage Programme, and invited fifteen local authorities to participate in the new initiative.
The authorities involved in the project are Blackpool, Blackburn with Darwen, Bradford, Liverpool, Nottingham, Sandwell and Stoke, and the Greater Manchester metropolitan districts of Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Tameside and Wigan. All were chosen because they have high child accident rates in line with their relatively high levels of multiple deprivation.
The DfT invited the authorities to prepare submissions for funding to find and deliver innovative ways of tackling the problem of high numbers of road casualties in deprived wards.
The partner authorities prepared a regional submission that included the establishment of a central team to develop and deliver regional and collaborative initiatives. Following assessment of the submission the DfT awarded a total of £17.167 million to the individual authorities and £3.5 million for the regional strategy.
In 2003, 92 children died and 2,884 were seriously injured while walking or cycling on the country’s roads and by 2010 the government aim to reduce the number of child road casualties by 50%.
The NRSI is committed to this aim and intends to put the issue of road safety firmly back into the public consciousness. We aim to :-
- Reduce road casualties in disadvantaged wards
- Reduce child road casualty rates
- Ensure the initiative’s road safety message reaches all elements of the community including ’hard to reach’ groups
- Raise awareness of road safety issues and the many causes of road collisions through publicity, education and research
- Influence a change in attitude and behaviour of all road users
- Encourage safe road use by all
