Road Safety Week celebrates road safety heroes across Yorkshire and Humberside
Road Safety week takes place between 15-21 November
Today marks the first day of the annual Road Safety Week where the campaign encourages everyone to speak up about road safety to ensure safe and healthy journeys for all.
The theme for this year is Road Safety Heroes and will celebrate the work of road safety professionals.
Brake, which co-ordinates the annual campaign, is calling for individuals, communities and organisations to share stories of their own road safety heroes – through social media, in schools, in company team meetings or special events.
How national lockdowns have affected road safety
The drop of a fifth in deaths and serious injuries on roads in 2020, due to lockdowns reducing traffic, was the first decline in years, say road safety campaigners in Road Safety Week (15–21 November).
An analysis of Government statistics by road safety charity Brake indicates about 300 deaths and more than 6,000 serious injuries were prevented due to lighter traffic in 2020, compared with 2019.
Road deaths and serious injuries declined across Yorkshire and Humberside by 470 people or 31 per cent – the second largest drop nationally – last year compared with 2019.
There were, however, still 1,460 deaths and more than 22,000 serious injuriesiii on roads in 2020, causing devastation to families across the country.
Casualty data for Britain, 2019 and 2020, by GB region
Jason Wakeford, Head of Campaigns at Brake, said:
“Road Safety Week is the UK’s biggest annual road safety campaign and is a great opportunity to speak up for road safety. This year everyone can acknowledge and celebrate the heroic efforts of people working to save lives on roads across the country - and recognise that we can all be road safety heroes by using roads safely and taking actions for road safety in our families, schools, communities and where we work.
“We would urge everyone to visit the Road Safety Week website for loads of ways to take part in the campaign all this week.”
The schedule for Road Safety Week:
Monday 15th: Road safety campaigners and charities
Tuesday 16th: Children, families, youth and schools
Wednesday 17th: Road safety professionals
Thursday 18th: Emergency services and road victim services
Friday 19th: Fleets, businesses and employers
Saturday 20th: Sustainability heroes
Sunday 21st: Marking the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims 2021