For people who have been bereaved or injured in a road crash accident, there are several national charities that provide a range of support, from counselling or a listening ear to practical and legal advice.
For more information and to visit an organisation’s website you can click on the logo.
Brake’s National Road Victim Service is a free, confidential, specialist service for you, if you have been bereaved or seriously injured in a road crash, or are supporting a road crash victim.
You can call the confidential National Road Victim Service on 0808 8000 401 (10am to 4pm Monday to Friday) or email [email protected]
Brake give you a named Brake caseworker, who helps from day one onwards, for as long as you need, over the phone or by email.
If you are carer or a professional supporting someone who is a road victim you can find advice here.
SCARD offer year-round support to the families and friends of those lost in road related accidents. From free/low cost one-to-one counselling and emotional support, to legal assistance and general help with all those questions and worries associated with tragic events.
They also offer support to anyone who has witnessed or gone to help at a road traffic incident scene.
You can call their helpline 0345 123 5542 which is open 365 days a year, from 9am to 9pm. All calls are charged at the local rate no matter where you are in the UK.
SCARD have free downloadable booklets, ‘Helping Children Cope with a Death in the Family’ and ‘A Parents’ Guide to Grief’, to provide helpful information to anybody who is grieving for a lost loved one.
RoadPeace provide information and support services to people bereaved or seriously injured in road crashes.
Their helpline offers confidential emotional support and practical guidance including information on the post-crash process. This can take the form of alerting callers to specific information guides or putting them in touch with other members.
They may put you in touch with a befriender, who is a member of RoadPeace and offers continuing telephone support to callers referred by the RoadPeace helpline. Befrienders are not counsellors and provide predominantly emotional support. Telephone befriending ensures that people who have been bereaved or injured in a crash can be put in touch with someone who really does know how they feel, wherever they are calling from.
RoadPeace also hold monthly meetings via Zoom which offer the opportunity for continuing mutual support between bereaved families.
You can call their helpline on 0845 4500 355 . Open Monday to Friday 10am – 1pm. Calls to the helpline are charged at a local rate.
RoadPeace also helps victims by providing information on the justice system. This includes the procedures involved in collision investigation, inquests and criminal prosecution and sentencing. For more info click here.
If you are interested in becoming a Road Peace Befriender you can email [email protected].
Road Victims Trust is a charitable organisation working in and around Cambridgeshire.
All fatal collisions in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire are referred directly to the Road Victims Trust (RTV) by the police Forensic Collision Investigation Unit and contain details of those that have been affected – bereaved individuals and families, those involved in the collision and witnesses. They offer their service to all affected people unless they have indicated to the police that they do not want any contact from RVT.
They also take referrals from GPs and other agencies, and self-referrals.
The RTV works in partnership with the police and HM Coroners, taking over from them the support of the bereaved and anyone else who is affected by the road death.
Their sensitive, personal and entirely confidential services are provided by a team of highly skilled and committed counsellors, all of whom have had intensive training and experience in what you are going through now. The services provided are free and confidential, offered to individuals and families, and available for a single occasion, for example at the Coroner’s Court, or for regular weekly meetings.
For people living outside of Cambridgeshire, telephone support may be offered.
For support please call 01234 843345 or email: [email protected]. Please leave a message and they will get back to you as quickly as possible.
To view their frequently asked questions about support click here.
Most service are operating services free of charge, please see the individual organisations’ websites for details.
Costs of calls to helplines may vary depending on your phone or mobile provider. Please see each service for details.
You can find other local bereavement support in the HAY Peterborough Support pages.
