Children take action as 9 are killed or hurt on Staffordshire and Cheshire roads every week
Staffordshire is the second highest hotspot for child road casualties in the West Midlands
Kids from across Staffordshire and Cheshire will take to the streets around their school today to raise awareness of the nine children who are killed or injured on the counties roads every week.
The children, aged between 4 and 11, are among more than 8,000 across the West Midlands and North West and form part of 50,000 across the UK who are taking part in Brake’s Kids Walk.
What's the situation like in the West Midlands?
Latest Department for Transport figures show that on average, 1,543 children were killed or injured on West Midlands roads in 2019, a slight rise on 2018 which registered 1,520 casualties Taking five-year averages across the region gives a figure of 1,700, or 33 children killed or injured on the roads each week.
The West Midlands is the only UK region to show a rise in casualties, with the national trend overall showing rates to be in a slow but steady decline.
Birmingham remains a UK hotspot for child road casualties, with 433 recorded in 2019.
The next highest rates in the region are Staffordshire (excluding Stoke on Trent) (120 in 2019) and Warwickshire (128 in 2019), although both local authorities have reduced their child road casualty rates over the past five years by 53% and 14% respectively.
What's the situation like in the North West?
DfT figures for 2019 show that, with 2,164 children losing their lives or being injured on the roads in the North West every year, the region is the third highest in the UK for child road casualties, (after the South East with 2,593 and London with 2,270).
By contrast, the local authority of Stockport reported 38 child deaths or injuries on their roads in 2019. Trafford, Knowsley and Halton also all registered under 45 child road casualties each year, taken as an average from 2015 – 2019.
Across the region, Cheshire East and Cheshire West & Chester have both managed to reduce their casualty figures by 40% and 37% respectively across the past five years, reporting 128 across the two local authorities in 2019 compared to 206 in 2015.
What's happening to improve road safety?
Schools and nurseries from the region are now joining the nationwide campaign, calling for five key measures to enable children to make safe and healthy journeys: footpaths, cycle paths, safe places to cross, slow traffic and clean traffic.
Scott Williams, head of programme delivery at Brake, said:
“It’s every child’s right to be able to walk in their community without fear of traffic and pollution. Throughout the pandemic, families have taken to the streets on foot and by bike and we hope these activities will continue as restrictions lift and ordinary road traffic returns. It is vital that children are able to walk safely in the places where they live. Although numbers of children killed or injured in the North West shows positive signs of decline, every road death or injury is one too many and causes devastation for families, schools and communities. This year we hope to inspire as many children, schools and families as possible to call for safe and healthy journeys for children through our Brake’s Kids Walk event.”
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