Emma Reynolds MP is supporting national Road Safety Week, 17-23 November.Road Safety Week, coordinated by the road safety charity Brake, is the UK’s leading event to promote safer road use. This year Road Safety Week focuses on asking all road users to “look out for each other” to help stop the five deaths that still happen every day on UK roads – and particularly to protect people cycling and walking. It will be supported by a week of increased police enforcement coordinated by the Association of Chief Police Officers.

In Wolverhampton the number of road accidents increased from 538 in 2012 to 569 in 2013. Across the country, after years of consistent progress in reducing deaths and serious injuries, sharp increases in the past two quarters in 2014 have alarmed road safety experts and campaigners. Government figures released in October showed that deaths and serious injuries on the roads rose by 4% in the first quarter of the year, compared to 2013. Cyclist casualties rose by 18% in comparison with last spring.

Emma is calling on the government to do more to prioritise road safety and restore targets to reduce deaths and serious injuries on the roads.

Emma said “I am calling on people in Wolverhampton to look out for each other. Whether you are a pedestrian, cyclist or motorist, we all need to respect each other on the roads.

“I am seriously worried by the increase in deaths and serious injuries on our roads this year. Five people are still killed on Britain’s roads every day and in 2012, 11 people were killed in Wolverhampton.

“I want the government to use Road Safety Week to develop a plan to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads. This should include targets to reduce deaths and serious injuries. It is very important that we make Wolverhampton’s roads safer for all who use them.”

November 2014