Think - the DfT's road safety watchword
Today, the results of a survey of 16,000 children by road safety charity Brake will be delivered to Downing Street.
The results form part of the charity’s bid to have 20mph limits imposed across more urban areas to reduce the number of child casualties on our roads.
In order to give the message extra impetus, the documents were delivered by seven bereaved and injured children who have lost siblings in road crashes, or been injured themselves; the number seven chosen because, according to government statistics, seven children are killed or seriously injured every day in the UK.
These statistics also show that the number of children involved in accidents of this nature has risen by 14%, bucking the trend of a steady reduction in numbers over the last decade.
The information uncovered by Brake is a positive move towards bringing the issue of poor child road safety to the attention of the UK’s administration.
However, whilst we fully support any measure that would make roads safer, especially for more vulnerable users like children, the survey also raises some concerns.
According to SafeSpeed’s founder, Paul Smith, there have been no studies into how effective the introduction of widespread 20mph limits would be, and that the decision to impose a 20mph limit lies with local councils and thus, the government itself does not monitor how many 20mph limit areas exist.
Hopefully an impetus will be put on investigating this lack of data with a view to assessing the long-term usefulness of this single measure before any knee-jerk reaction is taken.
Looking into Brake’s data, the survey also asked teachers for their thoughts on child safety, and we were surprised by just how poorly most schools are able to protect their pupils.
For example, according to the survey, only 8% of schools have a cycle path, with less than half offering crossing patrols. However 58% of classes had not been taught a thing about road safety in the past year.
Speed limits for drivers are one thing, but if children are not given appropriate direction too, then limiting speed appears to be a one-sided policy.
Responsibility is removed from drivers to maintain a speed appropriate to the conditions - 20mph even feels fast when driving near school at home-time - while children are not given more direction as to how to be responsible for themselves and not get caught up in a tragic accident in the first place.
What is clear is that a wider suite of measures appear to be required, and hopefully all options will be investigated as a matter of urgency, thanks to the attention created by the survey, to reverse the rising rates of accidents involving children.
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