National recognition for service's road safety initiatives

An innovative approach to promoting road safety and reducing anti-social driving in Cumbria has earned national recognition for the county’s fire and rescue service.

Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service scooped the Public Sector Driver Safety Award at the prestigious UK Fleet Champions Awards 2025 at New Dock Hall at the Royal Armouries, Leeds last night (25 September), presented to the public sector organisation that has implemented initiatives that effectively enable drivers to be safe.

The service was also shortlisted for the Road Safety in the Community Award and was highly commended in this category.

Lauren Woodward, Assistant Chief Fire Officer at Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service, said:

“This award is welcome recognition of the dedicated work our Prevention team have delivered to protect people on our county’s roads, working with Cumbria Road Safety Partnership and local community groups.

“One death on our roads is too many so we will continue to work with our partners to deliver road safety education and awareness until no more lives are lost to road-related incidents in Cumbria.”

The service has taken a pioneering, data-led approach to road safety, integrating immersive virtual reality experiences, targeted workshops for diverse groups, and collaborative hotspot interventions.

With funding from David Allen, Cumbria’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, the service created a dedicated Watch Manager role to work in partnership and drive the road safety agenda.

The role has been held by Dean Readman and Steve Brockbank, led by Group Manager Paul Milburn, and has resulted in engagement with more than 3,600 people.

Targeted engagement through school visits, community groups and public events has included 1,477 people engaged through road awareness training and 896 through Junior Citizens programmes.

Virtual reality experiences engaged more than 300 people at Westmorland County Show alone.

Innovative workshops such as Biker Down, Ride Safe, and POWDER have been developed, and targeted initiatives have been introduced with partners including Cumbria Road Safety Partnership, Cumbria Constabulary, RoSPA, and The Well Communities.

The awards, organised by the road safety charity Brake, celebrate the hard work and dedication of organisations striving to reduce road deaths and injuries and are judged by an independent panel from across the fleet sector.

The glittering ceremony was an opportunity to recognise ongoing efforts towards road safety goals across the UK – and focus on the work that still needs to be done to achieve the ‘Vision Zero’ aim of no road-related deaths or serious injuries.