This week firefighters acrossNorth Walesare appealing to motorists to tune into road safety and avoid distractions as part of Road Safety Week (RSW) 2013 (18-24 Nov).

Road Safety Week is theUK's biggest road safety event, coordinated annually by Brake and involving thousands of schools, organisations and communities each year.

North Wales Fire and Rescue Service is supporting their 'tune in' safety campaign to help protect motorists, passengers and pedestrians across the region.

Terry Williams, Head of Community Safety, explains: "Our work as a fire and rescue service does not just involve tackling house fires - we attend a high number of road traffic collisions and work tirelessly with partner agencies to help educate drivers about the potentially fatal consequences of speeding or not paying attention while driving.

"Driving is the most dangerous thing that most of us do on a daily basis and requires your full attention, but many drivers have a sense of over-confidence and feel cocooned in their vehicles, so attempting to multi-task is common.

"While it's illegal to use a hand-held phone to text or call at the wheel, around a third of drivers flout this law, and many others use a hands-free kit, despite both activities causing a dangerous distraction. Other distracting activities such as eating or smoking at the wheel have been shown to increase your risk of crashing, yet lots of drivers own up to it.

"But distraction isn't just an issue for drivers. For people on foot and bicycle, being sidetracked by your mobile, or not being able to hear due to listening to music, or forgetting to hold a child's hand, can be lethal; negotiating roads needs your full care and attention.

"We're backing RSW's request for everyone to pledge to tune in to road safety - that means promising to do your best to keep focused on the task at hand, and never putting yourself and others in danger for the sake of a call, text or other activity that can wait.

"During the week, there is an appeal going out to all drivers to turn off their phones and never attempt to multi-task at the wheel. But this is also about all of us looking out for ourselves and each other, however we're using roads, by not speaking to someone else on the phone who's driving, and taking care to stay focused while on foot or bike: including getting off the phone, taking out headphones and following the good old green cross code to get across roads safely."