Published on: 20/11/19
Road safety week is the biggest UK-wide annual road safety event coordinated by the road safety charity Brake. The road safety week website states: “This year looks at how a focus on design can help stop human error from causing death or serious injury on the roads”.
The 2019 campaign also encourages people to walk and cycle, make sure there is clean air and that everyone keeps safe, fit and healthy.
Examples of design-led solutions include safety technology in vehicles and applying speed limits. Brake has produced a short animated film that shows how the design of roads, cities and vehicles can help us travel more safely and healthily. It has other online interactive resources available to help raise road safety awareness.
Everyone is being asked to step up and take part in road safety week from schools through to policy makers. Schools can help young people learn how to create a safe and healthy future and shout out for change. Everyone can pledge to use roads safely, minimise vehicle use and shout out for design-led solutions.
It’s also an opportunity for professionals working in road safety, such as fire services, police forces and health professionals, to increase awareness and engagement in their work.
Road safety week supports the government’s THINK! campaign which provides advice, education and campaigns for safer roads. In 2000 THINK! was officially established as the government’s designated road safety campaign. In the ten years that followed, road deaths in the UK dropped by 46%.
The Brain Injury Group, which supported the road safety week campaigns for several years, states that: “50% of traumatic brain injuries result from road traffic accidents”.
The Brain Injury Hub contains a lot of real stories about children who have sustained a brain injury after being involved in road traffic accidents (RTAs).
