It’s Road Safety Week this week (18-24 November), coordinated by Brake, the road safety charity. This year thousands of organisations, schools and community groups are taking part by encouraging people to learn more about what we can all do to make our streets safer and to celebrate the great ideas and solutions that can reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads.
Every 20 minutes, someone is killed or seriously injured on a British road. Each of these tragedies has a devastating effect on families and local communities. This year’s Road Safety Week theme, ‘step up for safe streets’, is focussing on the safe systems approach – the design led solutions that can prevent these tragedies and make local roads safer. These can be anything from 20mph limits in urban areas and vehicle technology which prevents vehicles from speeding, to segregated cycle paths and graduated driver licensing.
Brake is urging everyone to ‘step up’ by leaving the car at home more often to help improve safety and air quality, or by pledging to be a safe driver – always keeping within speed limits and never drinking or taking drugs and driving.
Recent research from Brake highlights the large number of the population who have witnessed danger on the roads first-hand, with 1 in 3 adults stating that they’ve experienced a collision or near miss with a vehicle on a UK road in the past year. This proportion rises to more than half when just young adults (18-34-year-olds) are concerned.
Everyone can get involved too by taking part in Brake’s national survey about the safety of the streets where you live. Brake will share the findings from the survey with local authorities to help them understand the views of the people who live, work and play on their streets
Take The Road Safety Week Survey Visit Brake.org.uk
The charity believes that every road death and serious injury is preventable and is urging everyone to think about how they can “Step Up for Safe Streets” during Road Safety Week.
