Vincent Cable MP Is backing Road Safety Week

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 17th Sep 2003

Vincent Cable MP is calling on drivers in Twickenham to stop putting child pedestrians lives at risk by speeding in residential areas.

Vincent Cable MP is making this plea during Road Safety Week 2003, which is raising awareness of child pedestrian deaths and injuries and the unacceptable levels of fear children experience on a daily basis when faced with speeding traffic in around their schools and homes. The theme of the Week is "Save the life of a child-slow down".

The results of a SHOCKING road safety survey of 1,500 7-14 year old children conducted at schools across the country is being released by Brake, the road safety charity. Brake runs Road Safety Week with support from the Department for Transport, Department for Education and Skills and high street names Direct Line, Green Flag, Renault and Sainsburys.

Nationally, the survey found that:

75% of children want MORE SPEED CAMERAS.

HALF of children describe the road outside their school as DANGEROUS.

HALF of children say they need a SAFER PLACE TO CROSS outside their school.

70% of children think drivers should GO SLOWER near their school.

ONE IN THREE children say the road outside their home is DANGEROUS. An alarmingly high number of children say they have been hit by a vehicle, or narrowly escaped being hit, when on foot:

10% of children say they HAVE BEEN HIT by a vehicle while on foot.

38% say they have NEARLY BEEN HIT.

59% of children KNOW SOMEONE who has been killed or hurt in a crash, causing untold trauma to those children.

Shockingly, in 2002, 83 children were killed on foot across the UK. Drivers on roads without speed enforcement continue to drive too fast and kill children. More than half of drivers - 59% - still break 30mph limits in residential areas, according to statistics released by the Department for Transport.

Slowing down by only a few miles an hour can make the difference between life and death. At 35mph a driver is twice as likely to kill a child they hit, compared with at 30mph. In heavily built-up areas and near schools it is vital to travel at a speed of 20mph or lower.

Vincent Cable said: "Worries about children's safety are one of the main reasons why parents will no longer allow children to walk or cycle to school and this, in turn, adds to congestion and dangers on the road; so the emphasis has to be on reducing speed. There should be 20mph limits in areas where there are a lot of children".

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