Brian is back with a new column on the use of social media in road safety. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and so forth offer a unique place to reach our target audience with road safety messages although it does pose some challenges too. Read what Brian thinks about the social media revolution in Africa here.

Happy new month every one! It’s been a while since we last had a chat. I extend my lung felt (I should say ‘heart-felt’ but am too smart to know that you will start questioning and drawing some hypotheses ha-ha) appreciations to these tweeps: @ManpreetDarroch @SkDba @YOURS_YforRS @Sheilativ @caseymarenge @UNRSC @Make_Roads_Safe @dinhzarr @NOYSnoise @RYDrivers @SkDba @Amend @GenBois @DrIanClarke @carolbarebo @HumanityStrong and @RedCrossMbarara! I wish to take this chance to notify them that I spied on their timelines and they did a lot of commendable work especially during the #RoadSafetyChat event as well as sharing more opportunities and knowledge concerning the love of my life Miss Road Safety #PublicHealth.

For many of young people today, social media is the coolest way to stay in touch! In fact, from my experience, I find young people using Facebook and Twitter inboxes, like their email accounts; here, they are sharing opinions and news, which may be positive or critical. Social media is, without a doubt having a major impact around the world today in terms of how we communicate and interact. Oh, you may disagree with me…but wait a second…

Social media represents a shift from traditional media, which includes television, newspapers and radio but his doesn’t mean, that we have discarded traditional media though. What social media allows is for us, the mass public, to create written, audio or visual content on the Internet using computers or mobile phones and other digital devices. Social media provides a powerful platform for advocacy and engagement by allowing organizations, individuals, politicians, and others a direct voice to the public to create open dialogue and contribute their own personal accounts.

In Kenya, Namibia, and South Africa, I have seen them give safety  tips to motorists on how to use their indicators and mirrors, how to change lanes, anticipate the movements of pedestrians, watch out for animals including camels and other drivers, and how to navigate safely on the nation’s new eight lane highways. May be, we could have another campaign focusing on pedestrian safety? Say…yes!

In the words of Mr. Muiru-a Kenyan social media and road safety expert, “Social media is a cheaper option compared to doing newspaper or TV adverts to sensitize the pubic on road safety. The reason we started off with social media is because most Kenyans who are on social media interact with their followers even when driving. Our target is to reduce the number of road accidents and lives lost on the road,” Of course, you should never ever check your social media on mobiles or other media while driving, this issue this requires its own duty of care to ensure the message itself is not causing a problem for road users.

Dr Lee Jong-Wook, director-general, World Health Organization once said that ‘We must now use every day to act on road safety, and implement effective sustainable action to prevent injury and death on the world’s roads’ This shows that we must use every day to communicate and disseminate our road safety messages. It is important that road safety communicators stay in touch with the latest technology and that the newest tools of communication being used to convey road safety messages as best as possible.

Nevertheless, we should be aware of the fact that road crashes happen the most in low and middle income countries. Believe it or not, a big proportion of the world still has no access to the internet or have ever seen a computer. It is in these places that of course, social media is redundant.

In any case, social media should complement road safety strategies rather than be an road safety entity in itself, we should never underestimate the power of face-to-face road safety action! Campaigns such as Embrace Life and The World Crossing Campaign are testament to showing that young people can unite across boundaries for road safety via social media!

You may also be aware that, the Global status report on road safety 2013 was published last month! About 1.24 million people die each year on the world’s roads and between 20 and 50 million sustain non-fatal injuries. Young adults aged between 15 and 44 years account for 59% of global road traffic deaths. Aha…Young Adults, they are talking about me too, right. Texting while driving or using mobile phone while driving is somewhat becoming a kind of addiction to young people these days. Could this be because of the urge to use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter? In more positive news the recent World Health Organization #RoadSafetyChat discussing the report pulled in a great amount of participation worldwide!

The media industry has undergone significant changes over the past 5 or so years and has given a voice to more than professional journalists. The new social media has opened a new world of communication – a world that can assist in changing driver behavior and enhance road safety if we use it with care. Shall we then tweet and Facebook more for #RoadSafety

The Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit is pleased to announce that their free online certificate training program, ‘Road Traffic Injury Prevention and Control in Low and Middle-Income Countries (RTIP) is now live and ready to be used right now! This new online training offers an insight into road safety around the world and inclues multimedia and lectures to train all interested for FREE.

The Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) is pleased to offer for the first time a free, online training certificate program on Road Traffic Injury Prevention and Control in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (RTIP), hosted via the platform TRAMS.

Comprised of seven multimedia educational modules, this comprehensive program covers a wide range of topics, from the basics of road traffic injury prevention to setting up injury surveillance systems, evaluating road safety interventions and influencing policy on road traffic injuries (RTIs). The lectures are taught by a variety of instructors, including JH-IIRU faculty as well as experts in the field of injury prevention control and trauma care from around the world.

Modules in this training include:

• RTIP Module 1: Fundamentals of Road Traffic Injury Prevention
• RTIP Module 2: Concepts in Injury Prevention
• RTIP Module 3: Assessing the Health and Economic Burden of RTIs
• RTIP Module 4: Risk Factors and Choosing Interventions for Road Traffic Injuries
• RTIP Module 5: Injury Surveillance Systems
• RTIP Module 6: Evaluation of Road Safety Interventions
• RTIP Module 7: Influencing Policy for Road Traffic Injury Prevention

The course does not offer academic credit, but does provide a certificate for completing course modules.

The deadline for the LASER International Global Film Festival closes. The deadline has been extended to 20th April 2013 (for free) to the Youth Category of the festival. If you’ve created a film for road safety, now is your chance to get international recognition from the global road safety community for your work.

As you may know, the LASER International Global Road Safety Film Festival has a dedicated ‘Youth Category‘. This category is especially for road safety films created by youth and films created by others targeting youth. Any road safety film that fits this basic guideline is eligble for FREE entry to submit your film to the festival saving up €150 per entry!

If you win the Youth Category, your film will be given international recognition at the festival taking place at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris on 24th April 2012. All youth entrants are also offered free entry to the festival saving a further €50 per entry!

Are you a film maker that has made a film for road safety and young people? Maybe you’re a youth organization for road safety that have created films, adverts, documentaries or other films to promote the cause? You may even be a government organization, a university, a school or other institution that has created a film for road safety.

As long as the film is based on road safety and relates to youth (either they have created it or it is targeting youth) then you are eligible to submit your films. Submission time closes at 5pm GMT on 20th April 2013. More details are available here.

We look forward to seeing you submissions!