BackAction needed to stop child pedestrian deaths
Living Streets today welcomes the report from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee and urges the Government to take action immediately to reduce the tragic number of child pedestrian casualties in deprived areas.
Tony Armstrong, Chief Executive of Living Streets, said:
“Despite us hearing about general improvements in road safety, the fact that child pedestrians from the most deprived areas remain 4 times more likely to be killed or injured on the roads than wealthier districts is a terrible failure of policy over recent years.
“Our streets should be safe, attractive and enjoyable for everyone, not just those living in well off areas. Action needs to be taken now to reduce the tragic number of pedestrians being killed and seriously injured on our streets and we believe the first step should be reducing the speed limit where we live, work and play to 20mph. Areas that have already adopted 20mph speed limits have been shown to reduce the numbers of child pedestrians killed or seriously injured by at least 60%. On the basis of this evidence, it is incomprehensible that local authorities, especially in disadvantaged areas, are not being encouraged to implement 20mph as a default in every residential are a. It’s clearly time for the Government to introduce 20mph as the national default limit in all built up areas.
“Now is the time for action. All too often the reasons for the high levels of casualties from deprived areas can be seen in underinvestment in the local environment and the lack of safe walking routes. We urge the Government to take this report seriously, and use the opportunity of the new road safety strategy to make 20mph a reality where we live work and play, and set an ambitious vision towards zero pedestrian road casualties. We also urge local authorities to make use of tools such as Living Streets’ Community Street Audits which bring together professionals and residents to analyse popular walking routes to find local solutions and improve road safety for pedestrians.”
Published on: 22/10/2009
