Young People Biggest Victims on Britain’s RoadsThe World Safety Conference, hosted this week by London, will hear that the financial costs of injuries to the UK are now £36 billion/year, of which £2.2 billion are direct medical costs.
Twenty thousand lives are lost [1] and around a million people are admitted to hospital unnecessarily every year in this country[2]. The World Safety Conference, which opens in London today (Tuesday 21st September), will hear road traffic crashes are the biggest cause of injury in the UK, with young people being the main victims. And those living in deprived communities are more likely to be affected than those living in more affluent areas[3].
Campaigners and researchers are calling for:
Increased awareness of the potential dangers of wearing headphones and texting while crossing the road
The introduction of Graduated Licensing (GDL) – new young drivers not allowed to drive at night, drink alcohol and drive, or carry teenage passengers
Increase of 20mph zones in areas where there are high rates of deprivation
Potential Danger of Wearing Headphones and Texting
Ninety one people are killed or injured on Britains roads every day, a third of those are under 25[4]. Twenty percent of road traffic deaths in the UK are pedestrians[5]. It’s thought wearing headphones and texting could be to blame.
‘Tune into Traffic’ is a campaign aimed at revamping the old Green Cross Code of ‘Stop, Look and Listen’. The Campaign has produced an advert that highlights graphically the danger of wearing headphones when crossing the road.
The advert opens with clubbers dancing to music, then cuts to the screeching of car tyres, the car smashing into a person, whose headphones drop onto the road next to an arm with the words ‘Don’t get lost in your music. Always take your headphones out before crossing the street’ flashing across the screen[6].
Manpreet Darroch from Tune Into Traffic says:
‘This is of particular importance as the usage of iPods and MP3 players has significantly increased and young people’s lives are being destroyed unnecessarily.
Young people up to the age of 25 are especially vulnerable because the hazard perception part of their brain is underdeveloped. As a result they are more likely to be distracted on the road. Educating young people on this issue is vital’.
Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL)
Crashes involving new young drivers are increasing at a time when road traffic accidents in Britain are going down. Every day four people are killed or seriously injured in crashes involving young drivers.
Australia, New Zealand, Canada and most parts of America have introduced graduated driver licensing (GDL) as a way of cutting down unnecessary death and injury on the roads.
GDL allows new drivers to gain experience under conditions of reduced risk. It does this by ‘adding’ an intermediate phase between the preliminary and full driving licence. During this period, which could last as long as two years, the newly qualified young driver is allowed to drive without supervision, but not at night and not with similar aged passengers. Also, he or she is not permitted to consumer alcohol.
A review of the evidence on GDL found:
16% decrease in crash rates for all GDL drivers in British Columbia, Canada
28% reduction of fatal or severe injury crash rates and 40% decrease in teenage passenger deaths and injuries in California, USA
23% decrease in hospital admissions following crashes in New Zealand
62% decrease in midnight to 5am crashes in Ontario, Canada
Research by Dr Sarah Jones at Cardiff University suggests the benefits of implementing GDL could save up to 200 lives every year, avoid 14,000 casualties, and save the UK £890million:
‘Most people in this country know someone who has been touched by the death or injury of a young driver. GDL works in other countries and there’s no good reason why it wouldn’t work here. The cost to the NHS would be significantly reduced. And it’s not only lives that would be saved by having GDL – insurance costs should drop substantially if the number of crashes involving young drivers were reduced.’
20mph Zones
New data on 20mph zones shows pedestrians living in deprived areas of London are twice as likely to be killed or injured on the road than those living in affluent areas. Dr Rebecca Steinbach from the London School of Hygiene’s Transport and Health Group will tell Conference:
‘It’s children under 11 who are most at risk of injury, particularly in deprived communities. In London, extending the zones could prevent up to 700 casualties each year. Think how many injuries could be prevented if 20mph zones were introduced in all cities across the country.’
Over the last two decades London has implemented four hundred 20mph zones; 235 of them in areas of high deprivation.
Commenting Professor Sir Michael Marmot, author of ‘Fair Society, Healthy Lives’ and President of the British Medical Association said:
‘Traffic calming, like banning smoking in public places, cuts deaths and injury through its effect on people from all walks of life. Everyone’s health threatening behaviour is curbed and as a result everyone else is less likely to be hurt. But the less well-off would enjoy proportionately greater gains than the rich, as the risk of injury and death from road accidents are currently greater the less well-off you are.’
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[1] Macrory I. Annual abstract of statistics. Cardiff: ONS 2009
[2] Hospital Episodes Statistics
www.hesonline.nhs.uk[3] Bellis MA et al. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health 2008; 62: 1064-71
[4] UK National Road Safety Charity Brake, 2007
[5] WHO, 2009 Global Status Report on Road Safety, p. 226
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2 ... 40_eng.pdf[6]
http://www.tuneintotraffic.co.uk/Click here for more on conference
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. There seems to be a mentality, that it is always the drivers fault and they should beable to stop, even when they having got a chance of doing so.