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| This "accident" was mocked-up as part of a campaign to raise safety awareness among young drivers |
Joint efforts are cutting deaths on the road
The number of people being killed and seriously injured on Staffordshire's roads has fallen again, cutting the figure of a decade ago by almost half.
Staffordshire County Council's road safety team have just completed an audit of the figures for 2005 and the trend is still down.
In 1994 there were 628 deaths and serious injuries on Staffordshire's roads but in 2005 this had gone down to 329.
Staffordshire now has one of the lowest death and serious injury rates in the UK, and the UK is one of the safest countries in the world!
The County has been working extremely hard to deliver a whole raft of measures to help protect communities and reduce the tragic consequences of road smashes.
In 2003 the team were recognised at national level for their work with the National Road Safety Award for the target busting achievement.
The County has worked closely with the police, borough, district and parish councils, road safety and community groups in the fight to save lives.
Only last month the County launched a hard hitting campaign targeting young people between the ages of 17 and 24 who are responsible for 40% of all accidents. For further details go to www.dontbealoser.org.uk
Millions of pounds have been ploughed into a host of road safety improvement programmes, new electronic pedestrian crossings, Safer Routes to School schemes and traffic calming schemes.
Speed limits have been lowered, roads re-engineered, and major public information campaigns mounted.
The County has launched ground breaking driver training schemes for convicted speeders and cut price training for young drivers and motorcyclists.
The team have been at work in schools educating the next generation and creating much applauded education materials which have taken the life saving subject into the classroom throughout the year.
Theatre in education performers have been brought in to make the issues very vividly relevant for young people.
And finally when nothing else works and the casualty rate meets stringent national criteria, the Casualty Reduction partnership has deployed speed cameras to send out a strong message to persistently speeding motorists.
Staffordshire County Council's Transport Cabinet Member John Wakefield said the latest batch of figures showed that everyone was pulling together to tackle the dangers.
"Its good news that the number of people being killed and seriously injured is still coming down, but every single injury is still a tragedy that could be avoided and we will press on with the campaigning, the education, the engineering improvements and the enforcement measures.
"It is in great part thanks to Staffordshire's drivers that the trend is continuing to go down. They are thinking about the consequences of careless driving and speeding, they are recognising it could be their partner, parents or children at risk.
"But there are still idiots out there who think speed limits and road safety doesn't apply to them. They are reckless and selfish and innocent people are still paying the price, month after month.
"Communities are still crying out for action. We spend over £40 million a year on a whole raft of measures improving the highways, but money is always never enough. Whatever we do, if drivers are determined to speed through communities, people will continue to die. It's up to everyone to play their part in eradicating this tragic menace from our lives.
Page Last Modified:
30/01/2007 16:05:48
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