The UK was one of 16 European countries to record no fatalities on 21 September 2017 – Project EDWARD day – according to figures published by the organisers TISPOL.
Project EDWARD (European Day Without A Road Death) was conceived by TISPOL – the European Traffic Police Network – to ‘spearhead significant and sustained reduction in death and serious injury on roads across the world’.
In the UK a number of police forces, councils and other road safety stakeholders organised events – including in Essex, Surrey, Sussex and Staffordshire.
The Project EDWARD 2017 figures published today (20 Oct) show 43 road deaths across Europe. Both the UK and Ireland reported no fatalities, as did Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
The highest number of deaths were reported in Poland (10), followed by Greece and Romania – both with six.
In terms of social media activity, from 19-21 Sept, there were 8,813 tweets using the #ProjectEDWARD hashtag. This equates to a social reach of 25m users – eclipsing last year’s total of 19.5m.
On the day itself, the hashtag #ProjectEDWARD trended at number one in Ireland and also reached number four in the UK and five in Germany.
Ruth Purdie, TISPOL general secretary, said: "We are very grateful to everyone who signed the pledge, recorded a video, organised an event and assisted with spreading the Project EDWARD message.
“It’s time to take a look at how we can continue to innovate for Project EDWARD in 2018 and beyond, so we’re ready to talk to any organisations interested in working with us as we strive to make zero fatalities a reality on our roads.”
Category: Events, Stats & data.
Surely the effort would be better spent on encouraging complacent governments to adopt ISA and GDL, two measures which will surely be more effective than standing around making “O” signs.
Andrew Fraser, Stirling
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A lucky day for the UK then – no road fatalities reported….however, was that down to random chance or Project Edward? Did the number of collisions also reduce on that day? If not, then it must be down to good luck, or very bad luck for the ‘just’ seriously injured.
Hugh Jones, Cheshire
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Well done… to those nations that had no fatalities.
Just looking through the list of driving and road safety issues TISPOL were engaged in and I see that the giving of safer space was not on the list and hope that next year drivers who travel at say the thinking distance only behind other vehicles will be stopped and advised, the correct and much safer full following on distances is easy to recognise. At 50 mph or 80 kph the thinking distance is only 50ft or 17 metres and the full stoppimg distance should be no less than 175ft or 57mtrs. In my experience far too many drivers drive at the thinking distances only and therefore cannot guarantee stopping in the event of an emergency brake or stopping situation happening to the vehicle in front. We all know that in this country but do others abroad follow it. They should.
Bob Craven Lancs
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