Road Safety Week 2020 begins

This year’s Road Safety Week, the UK’s biggest road safety event, starts today. Aiming to get people and organisations to act to improve the safety of our roads, it also gives those working in the industry the chance to raise awareness.

This year’s theme is No Need to Speed, chosen as a reminder to road users that the speed they travel at can affect everyone else.

According to road safety charity Brake, the event’s co-ordinator, someone is injured in a road accident in the UK every four minutes.

This highlights the importance of Road Safety Week as a chance to look at our behaviour on the roads.

It is hoped that the No Need to Speed campaign will encourage slower traffic, making the roads feel more welcoming for people using them. Brake said this could in turn lead to more walking and cycling as a transport choice, “creating fitter, healthier and happier communities”.

Getting involved in Road Safety Week

The first Road Safety Week was held in 1997. Brake founded the event as a chance to raise awareness and to encourage action to stop “needless deaths and injuries year-round”.

Everyone is welcome to get involved, with schools, police forces, local authorities and businesses all taking part.

Individuals are also encouraged to take part. Brake suggests using social media to highlight the issue of road safety or teaming up with neighbours or colleagues to start a local campaign or hold an event or roadshow.

Speeding and safety

Speeding is a real issue in the UK. The DfT has estimated that in 2019, 50% of cars broke the speed limit on motorways and 54% disobeyed the limit on 30mph roads.

Meanwhile, 49% of van drivers went faster than the speed limit on motorways and 55% did so on 30mph roads. 53% of motorcyclists were guilty of exceeding the limit on motorways, while 63% disregarded it on 30mph roads.

The RAC Report on Motoring 2019 found that most drivers who broke the speed limit (38%) said they did so because they were driving according to the speed of other motorists.

But this has consequences.

According to the Department for Transport (DfT), 12% of car accidents where a police officer attended and reported a contributory factor involved a driver going too fast – whether that was exceeding the speed limit or going too fast for the conditions.

These actions caused a total of 348 fatal accidents in 2019.

After a road accident

2019 saw a total of 1,752 deaths on UK roads, while 25,975 serious injuries were sustained in accidents. That’s the equivalent of more than 71 per day.

Being involved in an accident isn’t something you just have to accept. If you’ve been injured in a road accident that wasn’t your fault, you could be entitled to compensation.

To find out how First4Lawyers could help you make a claim, just give us a call, request a call back or start your claim online.