Alex Attwood, environment minister in the Department of Environment Northern Ireland (DOENI), has launched a new campaign encouraging Northern Ireland’s road users to aspire to zero road deaths.
The new campaign, Share the Road to Zero, is designed to convey the human sorrow behind every road death in order to challenge and motivate people to become part of DOENI’s Vision Zero campaign.
The television commercial first aired on Ulster TV on 24 April and can be viewed on the campaign website.
The DOENI says that while the campaign represents a significant step change, it is also a natural progression from the core messages in its recent ‘Respect Everyone’s Journey’ and ‘Kill the Excuses. It’s No Accident!’ campaigns.
Alex Attwood said: “The number of road deaths in the year to date is 17 – twice the number of last year. This tells me that we should all sit up and warn ourselves of the risks on the road. The latest advertisement is to make us sit up, be safe and to work to reduce road deaths, indeed to have a zero road death ambition.
“2012 put down a major marker for road safety in Northern Ireland, with the lowest road deaths on record. But 48 families lost a family member last year and already another 17 families this year so far. This is always too many. So let’s renew the work to save lives with the ambition of ‘Vision Zero’, where one death is unacceptable. This is what the campaign is about.”
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No mention of injuries? Seems odd that the campaign is only concerned with eliminating deaths on the road, as if somehow injuries are acceptable but deaths aren’t. Why not simply promote zero collisions as an aspiration? The difference between life and death in a crash is more likely to be dependent on, amongst other things, the integrity/safety of the vehicle(s), seatbelt useage, emergency services response and subsequent medical treatment etc, rather than the drivers/road users actions leading up to the incident.
Hugh Jones, Cheshire
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