The theme for this year’s Road Safety Week, which takes place between 17-23 November, has been announced as ‘After the Crash’.
Organised by Brake, Road Safety Week is widely regarded as the UK’s biggest annual road safety campaign.
Launching on World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, the 2024 week will bring people together to remember loved ones who have died or suffered life-changing injures in road crashes.
Throughout the week, Brake will share the voices and lived experiences of road victims, and showcase the work of its National Road Victim Service, which every year provides expert emotional and practical support to thousands of bereaved and injured families during their darkest and most difficult times.
A suite of free resources are available to download via the Brake website.
Brake said: “Every year, more than 1700 people die on UK roads. Another 30,000 receive serious, life-changing injuries. The numbers are shocking, and there has been no significant reduction for more than a decade.
“But road casualties are not just statistics.
“Behind every number is a family in turmoil. A grief-stricken family trying to navigate its way through the complex procedures that often follow a road crash. Behind every number is a family whose lives have been changed forever in an instant. A family that needs our help.
“This Road Safety Week, Brake is counting the real cost of road crashes. We are revealing the stories behind the numbers and calling for the very highest standard of care for every road victim.
“Because after the crash, every road victim counts.”
I’ve worked in transport & engineering for 60 years, almost always cycling and then driving on pavements (designated as carriageways)
My background includes working on railways and construction sites where a far greater emphasis is paid to removing the risks that you pose to others, and yourself and act to reduce or remove the hazards taking a higher priority than the St Christopher ‘talisman’ of thinking that safety equipment is the key to avoiding harm
I’m frankly appalled at the lack of effective audit for hazards* and when crashes happen the failure to apply the poorly drafted Section 39 requirements where a roads authority investigates crashes, and then tells itself what action to take to prevent future crashes – practically marking their own homework?
I’ve worked with individuals and organisations to highlight the flaws
How a client can fail to do due diligence when hiring a logistics contractor, who has phoenixed a family trucking operation (after the earlier generation was banned for drivers’ hours offences) and with a 14 month delay in getting the O Licence, with just a year until a driver drove through 2 cyclists killing them. The driver was jailed, but in the 11 weaks before the trial the same driver rammed into a van, when he again fell asleep driving the same overnight delivery.. it took us 29 months to get that operator called in for a hearing and then banned, but no come-back on the client (a major supermarket)
Many examples of serious and fatal RTC at the same or similar locations where the basic cause of these crashes was not swiftly dealt with
– Vernon Place Holborn – 2 deaths in 5 years because drivers of large vehicles had to turn left from the right hand side of the carriageway
– 2 deaths in Glasgow in 5 years again where lane widths have been set out at barely 3 metres (when a MINIMUM DKE for a bus or tuck at 30mph is 3.25 metres) as a result truck drivers straddle 2 lanes to turn left & ram into the back of cyclists who go down and under the 9 Ton axles, especially for construction site trucks with a 40+cm gap under the front for off-road use (when they spend 98% of the time on smooth pavements and the standard 15-20cm gap is all that is required
– 2 bus crashes in 8 weeks at the same location with middle aged women, both walking from the local school to local shops, going under the buses in Greenwich, the second time a fatal crash, where a 10mph speed limit had been removed and a planned pedestrian crossing never completed from 16 years earlier! I reviewed this for Vision Zero London, and the coroner insisted on a Rule 28 report to show that action was being taken to fix the road layout
The list goes on, and the call to have professionally competent staff auditing and investigating road design and operation to deliver ‘Blue Zone’ (100% elimination of hazards) fort as much of our transport network as possible and eradicate as far as possible all ‘Red Zone’ conditions
H, Glasgow
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