Speakers
Jamie Hassall
PACTS
Jamie is a seasoned road safety professional who brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and contacts to the role. He moved from National Highways where he has built up over 20 years of experience. He was responsible for improving driver compliance on the strategic road network and led trials of new equipment to detect close following, and mobile phone and seatbelt offences. He has worked closely with the police, DVLA and many other leading stakeholders. Innovative approaches to driver compliance earned him and his team a second Prince Michael International Road Safety Award. He is a civil engineer and vice-chair of the ITS(UK) Enforcement Working Group.
Ruth Purdie OBE
Chief Executive Officer for UKROEd and The Road Safety Trust
Ruth is responsible for overseeing both UKROEd’s and The Road Safety Trust’s strategic delivery.
Prior to her appointment, Ruth was General Secretary of TISPOL, the European Roads Policing
Network. In her TISPOL role she worked with all European governments, senior police officers and
road safety experts to deliver a coordinated approach to road safety across Europe.
Ruth’s career as a police officer spanned 33 years and took her to the rank of Assistant Chief
Constable. Her experience in policing contributed to her skill in managing critical incidents and
major investigations. She is skilled in crisis management, coaching, assessment, government,
emergency management and law enforcement.
She holds a first class honours degree in management from the University of Manchester.
Ruth was awarded the OBE in New Year Honours list 2021, for services to Policing and Road Safety.
Ruth was appointed CEO of UKROEd in 2018 and CEO of The Road Safety Trust in September 2023
Sophie Lyden
FreshDrivers
Sophie Lyden is a passionate advocate for tyre and road safety, dedicated to educating and supporting drivers across the UK. As the founder of Fresh Drivers UK, Sophie has built a strong platform focused on promoting tyre safety and overall road awareness for new drivers. In addition to her advocacy work, she is the Manager of Westgate Tyres in Morecambe, where she continues to drive positive change in the automotive industry.
With a rapidly growing online presence, Sophie has successfully leveraged social media to engage and inform a diverse audience about essential vehicle maintenance and tyre safety. Her innovative approach and commitment to road safety were recognised at last year’s TyreSafe Briefing, where she received the TyreSafe Online and Social Media Award.
Beyond tyre safety, Sophie is a strong advocate for supporting individuals with garage anxiety, ensuring that all drivers feel confident and informed when it comes to vehicle maintenance. Through strategic partnerships with multiple road safety organisations, she continues to amplify awareness and empower motorists with the knowledge they need to stay safe on the road.
Tony Crook
Lancashire County Council
Tony Crook is the Road Safety Manager for Lancashire County Council, where he leads teams dedicated to education, engagement, and speed assessment. Tony has played a pivotal role in authoring the Authority’s Road Safety Strategy and actively chairs the Delivery Group of the Lancashire Road Safety Partnership.
His previous tenure at Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service included leading Corporate Intelligence, Emergency Planning, and serving as the National Fire Chief Council’s Lead Officer for Road Safety. His experience also includes presenting at numerous conferences, reflecting a lifetime commitment to safer roads.
Anne-Marie Penny
Anne-Marie survived a life-threatening motorbike crash in 1995, fuelling her passion for road safety. After 14 years in the private sector, she joined Kent County Council in 2003, leading motorcycle safety and the Kent and Medway Safety Camera Partnership. A trustee for the Association for Road Risk Management, she has won multiple Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards and now leads National Highways’ Driving for Better Business Programme, helping organisations better manage work-related road risk.
Louisa Phillips
Louisa Phillips is a road safety and transport policy expert with over 20 years of experience. As Head of Strategic Road Safety for the Government of Jersey, she leads the development of policies and initiatives to improve road safety, working closely across government, stakeholders, and law enforcement. She has just successfully run a joint initiative across Government with TyreSafe to undertake, for the first time, safety checks on cars parked in Government run car parks, gathering intelligence of the condition of tyres in circulation around the Island. Previously, Louisa was a Senior Policy Advisor at Highways England, shaping national road safety policy, and developing high-impact road safety initiatives throughout her career. Her work has earned prestigious awards, including a Prince Michael of Kent International Road Safety Award. A recognised leader in her field, Louisa combines technical expertise, political insight, and a collaborative approach to developing evidence-based policies to deliver tangible improvements in road safety.
Ryan Swindells
Ryan Swindells has dedicated 24 years to Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service, with the last 3 as a Station Manager in the Prevention Department. He leads preventative work focused on road and water safety in the community, most recently working on delivering education, publicity and training around tyre safety and creating awareness around tyre defects.
Paul Clarke
Paul has served as an operational Firefighter with Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service for 34 years, with the past decade dedicated to various aspects of prevention. Paul is currently the Station Commander responsible for overseeing the delivery of initiatives related to Road Safety, Water Safety, and Children and Young People. Paul is a dedicated advocate for embedding safety messaging across all Fire and Rescue Service activities and has played a key role in the development of the recently adopted car wash/road safety initiative for the National Fire Chiefs Council.
Simon McGrath
Simon McGrath is the Director of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement at the NCC (National Caravan Council), the trade association for the caravan tourer, motorhome, holiday caravan and park home sectors. He is also the Chair of the Sport and Recreation Alliance’s Outdoor Pursuits Division.
Simon is an award-winning journalist and magazine editor, and the author of Camping with Kids, which is sold in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
He began his career in journalism more than 30 years ago and for nearly a decade was Editor of Camping & Caravanning magazine, the world’s oldest and largest circulating title for all types of camping.
He is passionate about encouraging people, especially youngsters, to get active and connected with nature in the great outdoors – and feels the best way to do that is through camping in all its different forms.
Fay Cannon
Fay Cannon, Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership Coordinator, works collaboratively with partners to design and deliver initiatives, campaigns, and interventions to help Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership achieve its ambitious target to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on Warwickshire’s roads by 50% by 2030.
Becky Guy
Becky is RoSPA’s Senior Policy Manager. Her role is to seek and realise opportunities to reduce harm on our roads, in our homes and workplaces. She manages the development, promotion and delivery of RoSPA’s general policy work and specialist policy work in the areas of road, home and workplace safety.
Presentation title:
Safer Lives, Stronger Nation: RoSPA’s call for a National Accident Prevention Strategy
Richard Stowe
Richard Stowe is a seasoned software engineer with two decades of experience, driven by a commitment to quality, precision, and doing things right. Before founding Verifleet, Richard was a Principal Engineer at BT TV, responsible for software serving over two million households.
A lifelong car enthusiast, Richard feels privileged to bring together two passions – software development and vehicle safety. Through Verifleet, he is tackling one of the most overlooked areas of fleet risk management: grey fleet. Despite making up a huge proportion of vehicles used for work, grey fleet is rarely prioritised, with businesses struggling to manage compliance and safety. Verifleet was built to change that.
By combining data driven insights and AI, Verifleet helps businesses take control of grey fleet risk, ensuring vehicles are safe, legal, and compliant. Richard is committed to accelerating progress in fleet safety, providing businesses with smarter, more effective tools to protect their people and reduce risk.
Sam Merison
Sam Merison is the road safety manager for both the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames and Wandsworth Council. Sam is also the Chair of the national road safety charity Road Safety GB. Sam has more than 18 years’ experience of working in road safety within local authorities, predominantly within education and training, plus more recently across highway engineering schemes.
Commander Kyle Gordon, National Police Chiefs’ Council, Head of Operation Topaz
Kyle has been a member of the policing family for over 30 years, as a young man joining the Royal Ulster Constabulary G.C. at a time of instability and political violence in his home country of Northern Ireland. After 2 decades of policing in the province, Kyle moved across to Britain to gain wider exposure on the national policing scene. Between 2018 and 2022 Kyle was the strategic lead for the Metropolitan Police Service’s Specialist Uniformed Operations Command. This included amongst other specialisms London’s ‘Roads and Transport Policing Command’ (MPS RTPC), the largest contingent of roads policing professionals in the UK with over 2200 staff and responsibility for policing the roads of our capital city in partnership with Transport for London.
One of Kyle’s main missions since becoming involved with roads policing has been to call on his extensive experience in the specialist firearms and public order policing functions to enhance the currency, capability and professionalism of Roads Policing by seeking to bring across many of the best practices from those portfolios. This work continues and there remains much more still to do.
As an acknowledged national advocate for road safety both within the UK and further afield, Kyle was delighted when in 2024 an opportunity presented itself to move across to work full-time for the NPCC Roads Policing Portfolio, and in April 2025 to become the Head of Operation Topaz, a new strategic partnership between NPCC and Department for Transport established to enhance the policing of the UKs roads.
Outside of work, what free time he does have is spent motorcycling through the Cotswolds, time in the gym, or playing his oft neglected guitar.
Morgan Jamison is Head of Marketing for Garage Services at Halfords
With 15 years of experience in the automotive industry and over two decades in marketing. A passionate advocate for road safety, Morgan leads national campaigns to raise awareness around tyre care and vehicle maintenance, supporting Halfords’ mission to inspire and support a lifetime of motoring — and to keep UK motorists safe and roadworthy. He is proud to contribute to TyreSafe’s vital work in reducing tyre-related incidents.”