Collaborative innovation for safer mature drivers in West Mercia

By Anna Southall, Engagement and Campaigns Manager, West Mercia Police Road Safety Team, June 2025

Across the three counties of West Mercia (Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire), mature drivers have been a regular fixture on our annual engagement and campaigns plan for a number of years, but we didn’t seem to have an engaging product or campaign to deliver to them.

We’d occasionally dabble in GP surgery advertising or prescription bag
stickers (I’m going back a bit now!) but it felt like an area we could do more with.
Cue the development of the Keep Driving VR film, produced in 2022 by James and the team at FirstCar and presented by Rob Heard MBE, Chair of the national Older Drivers Forum.

This was prior to the launch of the Co-Pilot Vision Zero Community (bear with me, I’ll get to that!) but to me, this felt like a really positive step in collaborative working beyond the borders of our geographical boundaries and pooling valuable resources to deliver a high-quality product.

We were one of the crowd-funding partners of this project which resulted in a
VR experience which aims to help mature drivers better understand the risks and hazards that become more prevalent as we age.

An upward trend in casualties

Collision statistics involving drivers aged 70+ in our force area very much reflects the national picture: a gradual upward trend over recent years. As many of us know, we are a rapidly ageing population.

With more drivers on the roads until an older age, and being a largely rural force area, it is important that we – alongside our partners – do all we can to try and educate mature drivers about how to keep driving safely for longer and how to recognise the signs of when to retire from driving.

In 2024, we introduced Mature Driver Awareness Sessions across West Mercia in partnership with Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service, Shropshire Fire Service, Telford and Wrekin Council, Herefordshire Council and YSS, a charity in West Mercia.

These are in-person events where attendees (typically aged 65+) can watch ‘Keep Driving VR’ as well as take part in a wider discussion about medical conditions, eyesight, driving under the influence of prescribed medication and fatigue.

I’ll admit that I was originally unsure about how much interest we’d get in these sessions and wow, was I wrong! The take-up has been huge and feedback so far has been extremely positive.

Glowing feedback

Last year, 17 awareness sessions were delivered to over 200 people and the feedback included:

• 93% of attendees felt more aware of some of the conditions associated with ageing that can affect driving skills and ability

• 98% felt more aware of positive steps they can take to minimise some of these risks

• 97% felt more aware of coping strategies they can use to help them plan and manage their journeys better

  We’ve recently promoted our 2025 dates and we’ve had in the region of 400 emails from people wanting to book a place, so I’m pleased to say that the demand continues!

  
  What has been clear from engaging with this age group is the appetite for information to keep themselves safer on the roads, they want to find out more. They are willing to listen and learn, to discuss their concerns and to engage with us.
  
  We’ve recently built upon this work further by running two mature driver webinars. These were delivered earlier this month in partnership with James Luckhurst from Project EDWARD and Rob Heard who are both excellent at delivering engaging webinars alongside all of our brilliant guest speakers.
  
  We had almost 300 attendees in total across the two webinars, the first of which focused on health and mobility issues and the second on vehicles and independence. For anyone interested in watching or sharing these webinars,
  the links are at the end of this blog.
  

  Road safety is a conversation
  
  So, how has the Co-Pilot Vision Zero Community benefitted me as a member? Well, I thought I’d ask AI for a good quote I could use to highlight the benefit of sharing ideas which relates to road safety and this was what I got:
  
  ”Safety isn’t just a rule - it’s a conversation. When we share our experiences and ideas, we pave the way for safer roads and brighter futures.”
  
  Slightly cheesy possibly, but I was pretty impressed by that! (I’m still in that in-between phase of being amazed and slightly scared by the power of AI!)
  
  For me, the biggest benefit of being a member of this network is exactly that - sharing experiences and ideas. Seeing real-life interventions in practice in other areas, ‘borrowing with pride’ and sharing resources, and picking the brains of others in the same field.
  
  It feels like a really positive network of people who are supportive of each other and long may it continue.
  
  Watch the mature driver webinars:
  
  West Mercia Police Mature Driver Webinar: Health, Mobility & Driving
  
  West Mercia Police Mature Driver webinar: Your Vehicle & Your Independence