Fundación Línea Directa organizes the XVIII Edition of the Journalistic Award for Road Safety

‘For road safety. Here and now’. This is the motto that Fundación Línea Directa has decidided for the 18th edition of the Journalistic Award for Road Safety. An event that has reached ‘adulthood’ and that has been celebrated in Madrid’s Teatros del Canal during the afternoon of Junes 28. As every year, the objective of these awards is to recognize the informative labor that media does in order to educate population in road safety issues. This information is key to keep reducing the number of mortal victims in our roads. In 2020, 870 people died in traffic accidents. A number that, even though is smaller than the one of 2019, it’s not enough. Especially because, as a consequence of the Alarm State, there was a 25% decrease in traffic journeys.

Awards that encourage divulgation about road safety

This time, more than 1,600 journalistic pieces from radio, television and written press have been submitted for the awards. Every piece published in local, regional or national Spanish media from March 1st, 2020 until March 1st, 2021 could participate. Opting like this to one out of the three prizes of 10,000 euros; one for written press, one for radio pieces and another one for TV pieces.

The mission of Fundación Línea Directa is to promote the decrease of mortal victims from accidents in our roads. Thus, they work in divulgation, investigation, training and social action related with road safety. The promotion of responsible habits while driving is the path to avoid losing so many lives unnecessarily. Through studies, courses, training activities or investigation projects, among other examples of their work, Fundación Línea Directa does a great job for road safety to reach everyone.

The experts jury and the winners of the awards

A jury conformed by experts in road safety and communication has been in charge of the election of the winners in this Journalistic Award for Road Safety edition.

Within the jury we find names such as Pere Navarro, General Traffic Director; María Pilar González de Frutos, UNESPA’s president; Carlos Franganillo, TVE’s news host; or Ángels Barceló, journalist and current host of ‘Hoy por Hoy’, in Cadena SER.

In 2021, the five awards went to: Blanca Vives, from the program ‘Quijotes del Siglo XXI’, broadcasted in Telecinco (Television Award); Francisco Iván Gómez Úbeda, for an article written in ‘Diario de Almería’ (Written Press Award); Luis Henares, from the program ‘Aranjuez Abierto’, emitted in Onda Aranjuez (Radio Award); Jesús Soria, former director of the magazine ‘Tráfico y Seguridad Vial’ (Honorific Award); and Pastoral de la Carretera, department of the Episcopal Migrations Commission (Solidary Award). You can see here the pieces from all the finalists. And, in this link, the full event.

New Tandem wants to congratulate Fundación Línea Directa for their work and their 18th edition of this gala. We also thank them for inviting us to assist to the event; we are proud that one of the companies we have a stronger relationship with carries out such an important labor for society. Many lives can be saved and, hopefully, and due to initiatives like this one, one day there will be zero deaths in our roads.