Twitter posts about the senior police officer at the forefront of the RoadPeace Andy Cox Challenge were potentially seen more than 61 million times and viewed by 10.6 million individuals in just three weeks.
More than 17,500 tweets, retweets and comments about Det Chief Supt Andy Cox from almost 7000 individuals were recorded between May 9 and 30, 2022.
Top influencers included BBC Radio 2 and Channel 5 presenter Jeremy Vine, Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman, Northampton Town Football Club and LBC Radio.
In addition, tweets including the event hashtag, #AndyCoxChallenge, were seen almost 24 million times and were viewed by 7.3 million individuals in the three months leading up to and during the major campaign.
Between March 1 and June 1, 2022, 2,600 tweets were posted and 750 individual accounts contributed to the national campaign by using the challenge hashtag and sharing the details of their fundraising and promotional activities.
As well as RoadPeace and Road Safety Support, top social media supporters included:
- Sgt Paul Cording, from North Yorkshire Police
- PC Emilie Bunkall, from Northamptonshire Police
- Avon and Somerset Roads Policing Unit
- Nicole Taylor, Mum of Beccy Taylor, who died following a crash in 2008
- Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership
- Road Safety West Mercia/West Mercia Police
- Hugh James Legal
- Safer Roads Humber
- Merseyside Road Safety Partnership
- Sgt Brandon Brown, from South Yorkshire Police
- South Yorkshire Police Operations
- Northamptonshire Safer Roads Team
- Sussex Safer Roads Partnership
- GoSafe, Wales
- Surrey Road Safety Partnership
The impressive statistics only include posts on Twitter, therefore the actual impact of the campaign is likely to be far greater, with many event supporters also using Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram to highlight the challenge.
The event, which took place between May 16-22, saw police, bereaved families and supporters cycle and run every day across the UK on routes where fatal and serious road collisions occurred.
The event aimed to get the public talking about road deaths and the devastation they cause to families and communities every day.
The campaign has raised around £70,000 so far for RoadPeace, the national charity for road crash victims, and donations are still being received.
Sara Dowling, Deputy CEO of RoadPeace, said: “We are absolutely delighted with the money raised for RoadPeace and we cannot thank Det Chief Supt Cox, the forces, sponsors and every other supporter enough for their support. It will make such a difference and help us provide vital services to crash victims.
“Not only has an incredible amount of money been raised, but our social media analytics tell us that we also achieved our main aim of the campaign – to get people talking about road death, and more importantly the solutions we know exist to prevent road death and injury. “It’s encouraging how many people heard about the challenge and how many people supported our campaign calls on social media. This proves the appetite for change to reduce suffering on our roads.”
Donations can still be made in support of the campaign here: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/andycoxchallenge2022
Updated on: 24 June 2022