MOBILITY AND TRANSPORT
European Road Safety Charter
Good Practice

Always Alert

Always Alert

Initiative details

Young adults 17-25
Adults
Seniors
Describe the characteristics of your target audience 
Drivers who use their (smart)phone while driving. People often use their phone while driving for reading a text, texting, calling, changing the music or gps, making a video... We see that it are often younger people (<40 years) who are active on social media platforms that do not realise the...

Organisation details

Vias Institute

School / Research center
charter@vias.be
https://www.altijdalert.be/
https://www.vias.be/en/
https://www.baloise.be/nl/news/VIAS-campagne.html
Please describe the main road safety challenges/problems you have addressed or are addressing. 
In 2020, 108.000 drivers were caught using their smartphone while driving on the Belgian roads. That is 300 people each day! Other research has indicated that 26% of the Belgians read or send messages while driving, which is higher than the European average (22%). When reading or writing a message, drivers look down to their phone 40 to 60%, and this distraction results in a danger that is higher than when your blood alcohol percentage is 0,8. 
What are your objectives? 
To encourage drivers to ignore their phone while driving
To inform drivers about the risks of distraction

Always Alert (Altijd Alert / Toujours Attentif) has the goal to encourage drivers to ignore their phone while driving. We focussed on sending a positive message, rewarding them for their good behaviour in stead of focussing on the bad. The slogan "Car in, GSM off" (Wagen in, gsm uit / Volant en...

Project activities

If you work together with external partners, list the most important partners and briefly describe their role. 
Baloise Insurance, part of the campaign team and funder.
List the actions you carried/are carrying out 
Date 
Thursday, 21 October, 2021 to Tuesday, 21 December, 2021
Name of action 
  • Collaborate with Nina Derwael, olympic gymnast and national symbol.
  • Create a video where Nina gets distracted in her excersise due to her phone. She picks up the phone and falls. She tells people that you should not use a phone when you need to concentrate, not in the gym, and not in the car. 
  • Create a radio spot with the same scenario as the video. 
  • Set up a communication plan with radio channels, tv channels and social media channels (target: young adults). 
  • Organise a press conference at a race track where Nina has to drive while texting, to show the danger and how little control you have. 
  • Come up with new research concerning distraction

Evaluation

What has been the effect of the activities? 
- Number of journalists present at press conference - Number of articles in newspapers - Number of interviews on the radio - Statistics of the radio campaign - Statistics of the tv campaign - Statistics of the social media campaign
How have you shared information about your project and its results? 
- Newspapers - Radio - TV - Social media
How many people did you reach/have you reached? 
Is there a plan for continuing these activities in the coming years? 
In the autumn of 2022, a new wave of the campaign will start.
Who carried/carries out the evaluation activities? 
External evaluation
Internal evaluation
When did/will you carry out the evaluation? 
After the intervention
Please describe the evaluation tools you use (i.e. surveys, interviews, focus groups, etc.) 
Statistics