Brigade chief executive recognised with OBE for road safety services

Brigade Electronics chairman and chief executive Chris Hanson-Abbott has called for the fitment of more safety systems on vehicles to be made mandatory, after being presented with an OBE for services to vehicle road safety.

The octogenarian, best known for bringing the vehicle reversing alarm to the UK and Europe, was presented with the honour by the Queen in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace recently.

Hanson-Abbott said it was “testament to the enormous progress that has been made in vehicle safety over the last 38 years”. But he added that the mission to make vehicles safer was “far from over” and said he was launching a new campaign to call for the mandatory fitment of more safety systems to vehicles to address all types of movement hazard, including collisions between trucks and cyclists.

“Cyclist fatalities due to long vehicles turning left could all be prevented with currently available technology,” he said. “There will always be operators irresponsible where safety is concerned who will fit nothing voluntarily – only by law.”