Alan Gallagher, Head of Risk and Claims at North East Ambulance Service (NEAS), was awarded the Road Risk Manager of the Year Award by the Fleet Safety Forum; a division of the road safety charity Brake, to recognise the achievements of those working in the field of road risk management.
Since joining NEAS five years ago, Alan has played a leading role in reducing vehicle accidents by 70% in the last three years. In 2012, there were 142 accidents compared with more than 500 three years earlier.
Malcolm Maycock Director of Licence Bureau and award sponsor said “As an ex-police officer I appreciate the environment in which Alan works. His achievement has made life saving changes, added great value and clearly altered attitudes in a position where simply ‘doing a good job’ would have been acceptable. I hope this award goes a little way to recognising the great effort Alan has made.”
Alan said: “I am very honoured to receive such a prestigious award and would like to thank my team, staff at the NEAS, our insurers and brokers who have all helped to contribute to our improved accident reduction figures.
“Our vehicles travel more than ten million miles a year serving a population of 2.6m people over more than 3,000 square miles, 24 hours a day. This means there is a potential risk to our staff and public road users, whether it is a 999 responder assigned to an emergency under blue lights or simply a bus for out-patients travelling to and from their clinics.
“I’m really pleased that our efforts are not only making a difference to our staff safety and public road users; but the reduction in accidents is also saving on money for repairs of vehicles, which can be better spent on making a difference to the patients we serve.”
NEAS was also shortlisted in three other award categories for the 11th annual Fleet Safety Forum Awards for Excellence for Eco Fleet Award; Fleet Safety Innovation; and Safe Vehicles Award.
Alan received his award from Mike Reed, Marketing Director at Licence Bureau Ltd at a prestigious gala dinner at St John’s Hotel, Solihull, with more than 200 guests.
