Road Safety Week - Nationwide Campaign Begins

19th November 2019

At Simpson Millar, our Road Traffic Accident Solicitors see how serious road accidents affect people and their loved ones every single day. The human cost is enormous, and yet most of these accidents could and should have been prevented.

This week is Road Safety Week, an annual campaign by charity group Brake to highlight the full impact of road accidents and promote new safety measures nationwide. The theme for 2019 is Step up for Safe Streets, which aims to shine a spotlight on design-led safety measures, such as new technology in vehicles.

According to Brake, the number of road deaths in the UK has remained broadly the same every year for several years. In fact, the latest figures show that:

• 1,793 people were killed on British roads in 2017 – the highest yearly total since 2011
• Car drivers and passengers accounted for nearly half of these deaths
• The number of pedestrian deaths rose by 5% in 2017, accounting for more than a quarter of all road deaths
• The number of motorcyclist deaths rose by 9% in 2017
• 60% of road deaths in 2017 took place on rural roads
• 24,831 people suffered serious injuries on British roads in 2017.

It’s therefore clear that everyone, from members of the public to policymakers, must be made aware of the scale of the problem and what can be done to tackle it.

Brake believes that a person is killed or seriously injured on a British road every 20 minutes, and that every single one of these fatal accidents could have been prevented. Road Safety Week will therefore target everyone from drivers and emergency service professionals to schools, organisations in the automotive industry and policymakers to “step up” and create a safer road network.

Joshua Harris, Director of Campaigns for Brake commented, “We believe that it is everyone’s human right to be able to get around in a safe and healthy way every day. Road Safety Week provides a unique opportunity, every year, to focus the public, organisations and policymakers’ attention on the importance of road safety.”