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Birmingham Accident Prevention Council.

Thylacine

Thylacine

master brummie
Does anyone remember receiving one of these certificates from the Birmingham Accident Prevention Council? For some reason I kept mine - I always liked the bright colours and the Birmingham coat of arms. I've no idea what I did to earn it! It is dated 1958 which is the year I turned nine. At the time we were living in Yardley (74 Duncroft Road), and I attended Cockshutt Hill Primary School.
 
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I have been trying to discover the history of the Birmingham Accident Prevention Council (BAPC), without much success. The National Archives have BAPC papers for the period 1922-1970, suggesting that the council was established in 1922. In 1949 BAPC conducted a pilot road safety competition in Birmingham schools, in which 70,000 children participated. This competition must have continued at least until 1958 when I received my certificate. BAPC was still going in 1976, when a Mr L H Young was a member, representing the Midland Red bus company. There doesn't appear to be any more recent reference on the internet. Can anyone provide further information?
 
Hi Thylacine: I still have my Certificate the same as the one that you posted a copy of. I can remember that they were awarded to
children who understood the "Kerb Drill" which was introduced in 1942 to help children learn how to cross the road. "Look right,look left,
look right again and if clear march ahead". I don't know anything about the BAPC but it may have been an offshoot of the
Royal Accident Prevention Association stationed in London.

I obviously wasn't paying attention since I was knocked down by a car outside my school on dark afternoon in l951 and escaped with a broken wrist. I was very lucky.
 
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Thanks for sharing that memory, jennyann. What's the year of your certificate? Sorry to hear about your accident, but I'm sure it wasn't your fault!
 
Information about the BAPC seems to be hard to find, but the London Accident Prevention Council (LAPC) is still active. The LAPC was founded (as the London "Safety First" Council) on 1 December 1916 at the initiative of Mr H E Blain, Operations Manager of the London General Omnibus Co Ltd. Pictured below is a 1917 LAPC poster, a reminder of the days when cyclists and pedestrians shared the roads with horse drawn vehicles and trams as well as motor vehicles.
 
I still have mine from a few years before yours.
I can still see the roads and zebra crossings laid out in the Billesley Infants School hall and driving round in little pedal cars.
 
No, I have been a collector of coins and badges for a number of years and this was amongst a box of old badges I was given a number of years ago, there is also one for 1 years safe driving. Do you know if these were specifically for road transport drivers as they depict what would appear to be a bus driver?
 
ASTONITE said:
Do you know if these were specifically for road transport drivers as they depict what would appear to be a bus driver?
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I'm sorry, Astonite, I don't know the answer to that one. The ROSCO website has pictures of buses though. Perhaps someone else can enlighten us.
 
Hi Thylacine: Can't put my fingers on the Certificate at the moment. However, I would say the certificates were given out in late l940's early 1950 when I was at Marsh Hill Junior School. Re the accident.....it was my fault....I did the classic thing that many people do. I was seeing a friend off at the bus stop after school and walked out from behind the bus as it was leaving the stop. A car was coming the other way fortunately about to go up Marsh Hill at a slowed down rate. Suddenly, I was in front of the car and put my hand out to save myself and broke my wrist and sustained other injuries not too severe. I always hate to think what would have happened if the car had been coming down Marsh Hill!
 
It doesn't bear thinking about! I'm just glad you survived to tell the (cautionary) tale.

I'm a bit out of touch with the UK situation, but in Australia these days school crossings are very strictly regulated in the interests of safety. The whole school precinct has a speed limit of 40 kph (sorry, that's about 25 mph in the "old money") before and after school time. The crossings have special monitors who wear bright fluoro clothing. Just recently special solar powered high-visibility speed limit signs have been installed, which automatically turn on and off at the appropriate times (they must have a computer inside because they seem to know about weekends and school holidays!).
 
jennyann said:
Hi Thylacine: I still have my Certificate the same as the one that you posted a copy of. I can remember that they were awarded to
children who understood the "Kerb Drill" which was introduced in 1942 to help children learn how to cross the road. "Look right,look left,
look right again and if clear march ahead". I don't know anything about the BAPC but it may have been an offshoot of the
Royal Accident Prevention Association stationed in London.

I obviously wasn't paying attention since I was knocked down by a car outside my school on dark afternoon in l951 and escaped with a broken wrist. I was very lucky.
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Hi ,I wonder if this was an offshoot of the BirminghamSafety
First Council, my father was a GWR carter, delivering fruit and veg from Moor St Station to Smithfield Market and I have
safe driving awards from the BSFC the first one dated 1930 the year I was born. Bernard
 
I am starting to think (can be hard at times I know!) that there were many companies that employed drivers in and around Birmingham that handed out certificates and medals for safe driving records within the company. The Midland Electricity Board had a safe driving programme with certificates and medals as awards starting in the 1950's. When Dad learned to drive in order to keep his job...a Switching Engineer, who suddenly had to become a mobile Switching Engineer, he kept up an excellent safe driving record and had to attend Award Ceremonies at the Head Office of the MEB in Dale End. When he had received several medals he then announced that he had to attend to receive his "Iron Bar". We often laughed about that. He hated going to these award do's.
 
Mike Fisher said:
I still have mine from a few years before yours.
I can still see the roads and zebra crossings laid out in the Billesley Infants School hall and driving round in little pedal cars.
Click to expand...

Was it anything like this vid on top of Lewis's? (only ask as an excuse to wheel out me photo again cos my Mom thought I looked cute as a button! Grown up version looks like an accident was involved!)
 
Bernard67Arnold said:
... I wonder if this was an offshoot of the Birmingham Safety First Council, my father was a GWR carter, delivering fruit and veg from Moor St Station to Smithfield Market and I have safe driving awards from the BSFC the first one dated 1930 the year I was born ...
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Hi Bernard! I think you're on to something there, as the London Accident Prevention Council was originally named the London "Safety First" Council (see post #5). Thanks for the information and memories - you've given me something else to search for. Is it possible to scan and upload your Dad's 1930 BSFC certificate? I'm sure we would all love to see it.
 
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jennyann said:
I am starting to think (can be hard at times I know!) ...
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jennyann, thanks indeed for "getting your brain into gear"! (It wasn't so hard, was it?) Many companies must have operated "safe driving" schemes like the MEB's. Your Dad may have "hated going to these award dos", but I bet your Mom and yourself were proud of him and his "Iron Bar". Do you still have his medals? If so, is it possible to post pictures of them?

Does anyone else have information or memories of companies (etc) running "safe driving" schemes and handing out medals? I'm sure that Midland Red and Birmingham Corporation Transport would have done so for their drivers. Information, memories, pictures (of badges or people wearing them) are welcome.
 
Aidan said:
Was it anything like this vid on top of Lewis's? (only ask as an excuse to wheel out me photo again cos my Mom thought I looked cute as a button! Grown up version looks like an accident was involved!)
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G'day Aidan! Thanks for the link to that 1957 movie (just click here to avoid "cross threading") - wonderful stuff! I might have been there on top of Lewis's, but as I said, I never had access to those flash cars. Yardley must have been a "deprived" suburb! And those pictures from the Aidan family album are fine, too. I've half-inched one of them for this thread (hope you don't mind mate). You'll have to tell us, are you the driver or the passenger (both button-like cuties)? (And was that a small car or were you a really big kid?). View attachment 52697

[That'll teach me to use the BHF search engine! And why can't I turn smileys on for this thread? Any BHF hackers out there?]
 
The Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery has four pictures of a medal awarded by the BSFC to one W Newman. They give this information about the BSFC: "First located at 27 Paradise Street, Birmingham in 1925, the Birmingham Safety First Council had T Hawkins as it's Honorary Secretary. By 1933 the Council had moved to 76 Lionel Street, Birmingham and in Cornish's Birmingham Year book 1939-40, the address of the Safety First Council is listed as 57 Queen's College Chambers, Paradise Street. It's President was listed as the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, and the Honorary Secretary as Major Vernon Brooke OBE."
 
jennyann said:
... I don't know anything about the BAPC but it may have been an offshoot of the Royal Accident Prevention Association stationed in London ...
Click to expand...

Here is a 1996 snippet (from this website) about the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA):

On 17 August 1896, a vehicle driven at what was described by witnesses as "tremendous speed" struck and killed Bridget Driscoll in Crystal Palace. The driver of the car, Mr Arthur Edsell, insisted that he was travelling at only 4 miles per hour, approximately half the upper limit of the vehicle. The jury took six hours to decide that Ms Driscoll had died an accidental death, and she became the first road accident fatality in Britain. As traffic increased, so did the number of accidents, and "Safety First" campaigns were launched to counter the problem. In 1916, the London Safety First Council came into being followed six years later by the National Safety [First] Association which, in 1925, changed its name to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. RoSPAs presence in safety is recognised world-wide, and it remains Europe's largest safety organisation.

[The claim for "the first road accident fatality in Britain" is only true insofar as it relates to motor vehicles. People were being run down and killed by horse-drawn vehicles long before 1896.]
 
RoSPA (see post #22) is still a very active organisation based at RoSPA House, Edgbaston Park, 353 Bristol Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B5 7ST. Their website has an extensive history section, which explains how RoSPA grew out of the London Safety First Council and the National Safety First Association. There is no mention of Birmingham (nor of any relation to BSFC or BAPC) until 1966 when RoSPA took over the Birmingham Industrial Training Centre. RoSPA moved to Birmingham in 1976 and the present head office was built in 1996. I had no idea that this organisation was based in Brum!
 
Thylacine said:
G'day Aidan! Thanks for the link to that 1957 movie (just click here to avoid "cross threading") - wonderful stuff! I might have been there on top of Lewis's, but as I said, I never had access to those flash cars. Yardley must have been a "deprived" suburb! And those pictures from the Aidan family album are fine, too. I've half-inched one of them for this thread (hope you don't mind mate). You'll have to tell us, are you the driver or the passenger (both button-like cuties)? (And was that a small car or were you a really big kid?). View attachment 52697
[That'll teach me to use the BHF search engine! And why can't I turn smileys on for this thread? Any BHF hackers out there?]
Click to expand...

I have no shame! I'm the moon-faced, pudding basin barbered passenger in the pic selected (it was my car but I think this showed a pattern for preferring chauffeurs). I identified the model as an Austin A40 Devon (rare open-top model) on https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=13157&p=321298#post321298 and as no one has corrected it, so it is.
 
My Granddad who was a Driver for the Council got Two awards for accident free driving one for 2 years & Silver one for 5 years which I have in front of me . I will scan & post after lunch. No dates on them but might get the mark off the Silver medal.
He died in 1933
 
Here are my Accident Prevention Council certificates from 1960 and 1963. They must have worked, because I never had any accidents :)

Infant Safety Certificate (1960).jpgJunior Safety Certificate (1963).jpg
 
What lovely certificates. I have never seen these before, thanks for posting them.
 
I remember doing 'colouring in' at school for accident prevention. I think I may even have got a certificate like those, they look very familiar. I also remember the accident prevention people visiting our junior school and running a film for us. Afterwards we all got a bar of Cadbury's chocolate, the 2pence bar ( I think). Viv.
 
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