Road Safety Week 2020
I’m sure that I am not in the minority when I say that when the clocks go back I feel a bit more groggy in the morning. This of course might also be because an extra hour in bed seems to totally throw the sleeping patterns of our children, to the extent that they suddenly wake up even earlier than they did before. Surely this happens to other parents!?
What it also does suddenly, is to change the driving conditions for many on the way home from work. Whether in a car, on a bike, or walking, one is suddenly plunged into darkness; often on poorly lit roads that are poorly maintained. Add in wetter weather and the occasional freezing temperature and you have a mixture of conditions that increase the risk of accidents significantly.
This week is Road Safety Week, and at the start of the week Sky News reported on a poll carried out by Brake, the road safety charity, which showed that 18% of drivers admitted to driving in excess of 100mph and for people aged between 25 and 34 this number rose to 33%. In 2019, 187 people were either killed or injured where speed was a contributing factor. On average 5 people are killed every day in the UK as a result of a collision and for vulnerable road users, car drivers are by far the greatest cause of these.
With someone injured on a UK road every 4 minutes, No Need to Speed is a reminder to everyone of how the speed they travel affects other people. It even affects mental wellbeing. I know that as a parent of young children a speedy driver these days elicits at least a stare from me in their general direction raising my blood pressure. As a cyclist, I know how scary it is when a car overtakes too close to me at a speed too great for the road conditions. And as a Solicitor acting for individuals who have been significantly injured as a result of being involved in a road traffic collision, I have seen at first hand the impact speed has on the lives of everyday folk just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Further information on Brake’s campaign can be found by checking the Road Safety Week website.
To discuss any Personal Injury issue, call us on 01903 229999, email us at info@bennett-griffin.co.uk or by completing the contact form below.
Tim Ransley is an associate solicitor in our Personal Injury team, as well as being a keen cyclist in his spare time.