Great Britain’s road safety record has flatlined for a decade, with serious injuries and deaths stubbornly high. Traditional datasets only tell us where incidents happened, not why. VivaCity’s AI-powered Near Miss technology flips the script by detecting risky interactions before collisions occur, surfacing the early warning signs of danger.

In this short session, we’ll show how Transport for West Midlands used Near Miss to uncover hidden risks at junctions across the region. At Grange Road in Coventry, the data pinpointed fast turning speeds and poor crossing provision as key hazards. Targeted changes including infrastructure upgrade were introduced in February 2025. Within months, near misses dropped by 88.5%.

This rapid, evidence-led approach demonstrates how AI-powered insights are moving road safety from reactive to proactive, helping authorities design interventions that save lives.

Darren Divall, Road Safety Manager, TfWM

Darren Divall’s role at TfWM is to enable, support and facilitate road safety improvements across the West Midlands Combined Authority region. As Lead Coordinator for the 16 Regional Road Safety Partnership organisations, Darren ensures delivery of a robust and fit for purpose strategic approach aimed at achieving a 50% reduction in the number of killed and seriously injured casualties by 2030.

His current focus is on the delivery of a Regional Road Safety Action Plan based on robust statistical evidence and community based insight, along with a new multi-agency Operational Working Agreement for average speed enforcement.

Darren began his road safety career in 1998 and has worked for three UK local authorities as well as TRL. He has over 20 years of international experience, formulating multi-sector road safety strategies and action plans, conducting road safety management capacity reviews, data collection and analysis, identifying solutions for vulnerable road users, delivering behaviour change and education programmes, and building capacity at all levels through research, technical notes and training.

Darren is a former Chairperson of the Institute of Road Safety Officers and Head of Road Safety GB Academy. He is also a judge for the Prince Michael International Road Safety Awards and represents TfWM on the PACTS Safe System Forum.

Shane Foley, Strategic Partner Lead, VivaCity

Shane Foley has extensive experience in both operational management and sales management roles, across large multinational mobility providers and start-up tech-based organisations.

He is passionate about sustainable, green travel and working towards making our communities safer, cleaner and generally better places to live.

Shane's role at VivaCity allows him to work alongside combined and local authorities to ensure they can use our cutting edge AI technology to have the best, most accurate data possible to make impactful decisions on the way we live.