Campaign Launched To Improve St Helens Road Safety

In 2018, there were 1,784 people killed on the roads in Britain;

In 2018, 25,511 people were seriously injured on the roads in Britain;

In 2018, there was a total of 160,597 casualties of all severities in road traffic crashes;

In 2018, the highest number of fatalities were car users, both drivers and passengers, who accounted for 44% of road deaths;

In 2018, of the 1,784 road deaths, the majority (58%) occurred on rural roads.

That's according to a survey carried out by Brake, the road safety charity. The organisation which was formed in 1995 works to prevent road death and injury and work to support those bereaved or injured in crashes.

A campaign has been launched to implement speed reduction measures and allocate a set of fixed lights crossings on Jubits Lane in St Helens, Merseyside. This follows an incident on Thursday afternoon when a white Vauxhall Astra van was in a collision with a wall. A woman passenger who was trapped in the car received medical attention at the scene and was taken to hospital where she was being treated for serious injuries.

She is now in a stable condition in hospital.

A 27-year-old man from St Helens was detained and arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving and taken to a police station for questioning.

He has now been released under further investigation.

Anyone who witnessed the incident or has any dascham or CCTV footage is asked to contact @MerPolCC or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111 with reference 20000250428 of Thursday, May 1.

As part of the campaign, the local council will be petitioned to implement speed reduction measures and put a set of fixed lights crossings on the road. There have been a number of incidents on this stretch of road in past years.

A group of local residents will also be putting on training sessions to make the public more aware of the issues surrounding road safety.

local councillors are very supportive of this campaign  as is Marie Rimmer, MP who has also been contacted.

According to the World Health Organisation,

“Road traffic injuries remain an important public health problem at global, regional and national levels. While steps are being taken in many countries to improve road safety, much still needs to be done if the rising trend in road traffic deaths is to be halted or reversed.

Approximately 1.35 million deaths worldwide are caused by road traffic accidents.

In July last year, the UK government set out a number of steps to improve road safety. These include:

government sets out a major package of measures to reduce the number of people killed and injured on roads

action plan to improve safety for people at every stage of life – from infants in car seats to those with years of driving experience

increased penalties for failing to wear a seatbelt one of seventy-four measures being considered

Under the new plans, failure to wear a seat belt could result in a fine and a number of penalty points added to your license.

Road Safety Minister Michael Ellis said:

“Far too many people are not wearing a seatbelt while traveling in a car, needlessly putting their lives at risk.

Increasing penalties for people who disregard the simplest of way of protecting themselves is just one of a long list of actions this government is taking to help keep people safe on our roads.”

If you've been affected by any of the issues mentioned in this news story and would like to help improve the situation by supporting this campaign, please visit https://www.change.org/p/st-helens-council-road-safety-campaign-jubits-lane-b5419-st-helens?recruiter=731789744&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=share_petition&recruited_by_id=0a6d0d90-4dc3-11e7-943f-87541ce8e8f1&utm_content=fht-22029590-en-gb%3Av2&fbclid=IwAR1ESFVHLYCbngPlWJqIqaHxySKdXdmhLqQjkcf0lgcxu7t2VKPotBGR8p4