Royal award for REALRIDER

REALsafe Technologies have won the coveted 2014 Motorcycle Award, sponsored by The Motorcycle Industry Association. The Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards are presented to companies or organisations in recognition of their outstanding contribution to improving road safety.

HRH Prince Michael himself presented the highly respected award to REALsafe co-founders Zoe Farrington and Andrew Richardson – for the industry-first crash detection app REALRIDER – at an annual awards luncheon ceremony at The Savoy in London.

The event was attended by around 400 guests, including the new road safety minister and a host of leading road safety professionals. The awards ceremony has become an extremely prestigious event in the British road safety calendar.

REALRIDER is the brainchild of Durham-based REALsafe Technologies’ managing director Zoe Farrington and business development director Andrew Richardson. This safety app for motorcyclists detects if a rider has crashed and sends location and medical information directly to the NHS Ambulance Control Room.

The app has been piloted as a UK-wide initiative in partnership with the North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, whose Control Room Systems and Resilience Specialist, John Rowland, said: “REALRIDER is a game-changing application – the first of its kind in the UK. Its technology allows us to locate patients in potentially life-threatening situations with speed and accuracy, which is vitally important in saving lives.”

REALRIDER has attracted widespread industry support since launch last year, and Andrew commented: “We are a little overwhelmed and extremely grateful to have been acknowledged at such an illustrious ceremony. Having been recognised earlier this year for the success of REALsafe Technologies as a business, this extremely important award underpins the very reason we took REALRIDER to market – to save lives.”

Read more how the app works here: Kit spotlight: How the REALRIDER app keeps you safe