‘We must do better than this’ – UK road safety charity calls for action
The adoption of a ‘default’ 20mph speed limit in built-up areas forms part of a new long term plan by the UK’s foremost road safety campaigning charity.
Brake says that the advent of a new government is an opportunity to ‘recognise the enormity’ of the issue of road deaths – particularly vulnerable users like children.
As part of a three-year plan, it wants to create an accessible, accredited national pathway for road victim support, progressive licensing for young and newly-qualified drivers and more stringent vehicle safety regulations.
Each year the charity brings together its main supporters, road safety campaigners and families of road victims from across the UK, to remember those killed or injured in road crashes and celebrate progress towards road safety goals.
Among road safety campaigners involved in the launch was Dr Ian Greenwood, whose daughter Alice was just 12 when she was killed in an avoidable crash involving a young driver. He said: “Britain used to be a world leader in reducing death and injury on our roads; no longer. But, with visibility of the problem, and strong and determined political leadership, we can again be a world leader.
‘It is beyond time for action’
“This is vital, not because of a league table, but because we can stop road death and serious injury, and stop families having to deal with the nightmare of sudden and traumatic death. It is beyond time for action.”
Research by Brake recently showed that over three-quarters (78 per cent) of parents and carers questioned would like roads near their home and children’s schools to have a speed limit of 20mph.
And crucially, the vast majority – some 85 per cent – said they want to see the Government do more to make roads safer in their particular community.
Of the 2,000+ parents and carers of primary schoolchildren who were questioned, more than two-thirds (69 per cent) would like their children to walk or wheel to school more often, yet over a third (39 per cent) say they can’t because the roads are too busy and a quarter (24 per cent) believe that vehicles are simply being driven too fast.
Brake’s call for action coincided with its Kids Walk event, which saw around 80,000 children aged between four and 11, from more than 700 schools and youth organisations make their voices heard about being able to take safe and healthy journeys to and from school.
Ross Moorlock, chief executive of Brake, said: “A death or serious injury on roads should be a rare and unusual event. But sadly, today’s reality is that five people die on the UK’s roads every single day, and over 75 more suffer serious, life-changing injuries. If the aviation or rail industry had a safety record like that, planes would be grounded, and trains would be stopped.
“But when it comes to our roads, we somehow, as a society, tolerate the intolerable, or convince ourselves that road deaths and life-changing injuries are just an inevitability. We have to do better than this.”
Click here for more information on the strategy.
