"Why do we have to wait until a child is killed before we act?" says Brake

BRAKE, the road safety charity, is calling for 20 mph speed limits to be implemented around all Schools within the UK, as parents report roads aren't safe for their children to walk to School.

According to new research published by Brake, parents and carers across the country say they don't walk their children to School every day because roads are too busy (36%) and cars go too fast (25%). Compounding this, nearly 64% of parents say their School doesn't have 20mph speed limits on all surrounding roads.

More than 110,000 children (aged:- 4 to 11) from more than 720 Schools and Nurseries are taking part in the:- 'Brake's Kids Walk,' calling for their right to make safe and healthy journeys without fear or threat from traffic.

To coincide with the launch of the walk, Brake has highlighted the true extent of child casualties on the nation's roads.

Latest Department for Transport (DfT) figures show that 1,510 children under the age of 16 were killed or injured on North West roads in 2021; an average taken from the last 5 years gives a figure of 1,688. This means that, on average, 32 children die or suffer injuries as a result of road crashes in the North West every single week.

This latest figure is significantly higher than the previous year's (1,198 in 2020), when there were lower levels of traffic on the roads due to travel restrictions during the pandemic. However, when considered in comparison with the figures for 2017, 2018 and 2019, the figure is continuing to trend downwards.

Across the Region, the greatest number of casualties in 2021 occurred in Lancashire (excluding Blackburn), which recorded 348 children killed or injured. Although the number reduced considerably in 2020 compared to 2019, (from 336 to 248), the number of deaths and injuries on Lancashire's roads was 4% higher in 2021 than it was before the pandemic measures.

Only 3 areas in the Region saw a reduction in casualties:- Blackburn (down 7%), Halton (down 50%) and St Helens (down 10%). However, several areas recorded large increases in the number of deaths and injuries, with Rochdale recording the greatest percentage rise; 117% up on the previous year. Other areas which have recorded a significant leap in the percentage of child casualties compared to the year before include:- Sefton (59%), Cheshire West (57%) and Stockport and Oldham (both up 48%).

Brake has also revealed the extent of child casualties across the rest of the UK. Latest official figures show that 11,580 children aged 15 or under were killed or injured on roads in the UK in 2021; an average taken from the last five years gives a figure of 13,503 (Table 2).

At Dropmore Infant School in Buckinghamshire, parents have reported passing traffic ripping off a car door when they dropped their children off at School; meanwhile children have to walk on roads exposed to speeding traffic because there are no pavements.

Dropmore sits at a T-junction in Littleworth, a village sandwiched between Slough and Junction 2 of the M40. The speed limit on nearby roads is 60mph, and although it reduces to 30mph outside the School, there are areas with no pavement, no crossing patrol, and very few designated parking spaces. A local Community Speedwatch group has recorded cars speeding past the School at an average of 38mph, with the highest speed recorded in front of the School being 54mph.

Headteacher Gitta Streete has been campaigning for the speed limit to be reduced to 20mph for many years. Streete commented:- "What we often hear back is that because no one has been seriously hurt or killed on that road, there is no need to make any changes. 1 parent had their car door taken off by a passing car. That could easily have been a child, parent or carer being hit. What we need is a proper, phased speed reduction system: a reduction to 20 mph outside the School and safe areas for everyone to walk along and cross the road. Thankfully, no one has been hurt yet, but road safety measures should not be solely left to the School to enact."

Dropmore Infant School has a platinum-level accreditation for road safety from the Modeshift STARS programme, and as part of its tireless campaigning to make roads near the School safer, the School has signed up to take part in Brake's Kids Walk; an annual Schools walk coordinated by road safety charity Brake, and sponsored by esure.

The 110,000 Schoolchildren taking part in Brake's Kids Walk will complete a short, supervised walk around their Schools and/or communities. They will carry banners and posters, provided by Brake, to help raise awareness of the five things they need to help keep them safe near roads: slower traffic, cleaner traffic, better footpaths, better cycle paths, and safe places to cross.

Lucy Straker, campaigns manager at Brake, says:- "Sadly, we know that Dropmore's situation is being replicated across the country. We speak to lots of Schools where teachers are doing everything they can to make the roads near their School safe, but ultimately they need support from their local Council and decision-makers. Why do we have to wait until a child is killed before we act? We know that excess speed is a factor in about a quarter of fatal crashes, and the physics is pretty straightforward: the faster a vehicle is travelling, the harder it hits and the greater the impact. A crash at 30mph has twice the amount of kinetic energy as a crash at 20mph. Reducing speed saves lives. As Schools up and down the country take part in Brake's Kids Walk to shout out for safe places to walk, with slow traffic, we're calling for roads around every School to have 20mph speed limits; and other measures to effectively reduce traffic speed; so children and their families can travel safely to and from School every day."

Schools taking part in Brake's Kids Walk can run special road safety themed assemblies, lessons and fun activities, using free resources from Brake. Brake has also provided Schools with a Kid's manifesto for safe and healthy journeys that they can use to help them ask local or national decision makers to make the roads around their School 20mph, Brake's research supports this call, with many parents clearly worried about the speed of traffic near their children's School.

Brake's Kids Walk 2023 Sponsor Esure's  CEO David McMillan, said:- "We are delighted to continue our partnership with Brake's Kids Walk for the third year running and to raise awareness of the importance of safer roads and cleaner air for School children across the UK."

Resources are available to any parent, carer or Teacher to download for free at:- Brake.Org.UK. The event can also be used to fundraise for Brake, which supports families who have lost loved ones in road crashes.

Brake, the road safety charity, has been organising walking events for School children at a national level for more than 15 years. The charity is also behind:- 'Road Safety Week' which is the UK's biggest road safety campaign each November.

Interestingly some experts are also suggesting that it is not just a fact that roads busy, but that the Lockdowns gave also affected the way children see the world around them. Some point out that road safety awareness within many younger children is not as developed as it has been with previous generations. Many children appear to be less aware of the dangers of traffic, after experiencing growing up with little or no traffic, on many roads around them, before they started School. So this could also explain the rise in accidents. Plus, electric cars are also a huge concern, due to them being extremely quite.

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Trains could become 'Data Hoovers' to help Northern deliver a more sustainable and reliable railway

NORTHERN is looking to equip as many as 40 of its trains with kit that will enable them to become 'data hoovers' to help transform the way the rail network is maintained.

The special trains, which would still operate public services, would travel the network and feed information about the track and surrounding infrastructure to Network Rail.

Horizon scanning LIDAR cameras, thermal imaging software and HD CCTV footage would all be used to record infrastructure defects, environmental factors and maintenance issues.

Every night, the train would perform a:- 'digital handshake' so the information captured can be downloaded and analysed.

The scheme is part of Northern's Intelligent Trains programme, which was 1st announced in 2022 and is a collaboration with Network Rail designed to help make journeys by rail safer, more reliable and efficient.

Rob Warnes, strategic development director at Northern, said:- "We have always sought ways to do things smarter, safer and more efficient. Each of our trains travel, on average, 100,000 Km around the North of England every year and that presents an amazing opportunity for data capture. We would only need 40 of our fleet of 335 trains to be fitted with this technology to regularly sweep our entire network, which spans 3,000 Km of track. Those trains could provide engineers with data from the same section of track over many days, weeks and months; enabling maintenance issues to be identified and repairs scheduled whilst they are within operational safety standards."

Northern is in talks with Network Rail to secure funding for the programme, which it estimates would save tens of thousands of:- 'delay minutes' caused by urgent, unscheduled maintenance each year.

For their work in this area, Northern has recently been short listed for a 2023 Railway Innovation Award in the Engineering and Safety category. The Awards, which are organised by Modern Railways magazine in association with the Railway Industry Association, are set to take place, on:- Friday, 23 June 2023.