Tuesday 21 April 2009

Road Safety Group Welcomes Government Plans to Reduce Speed Limits

David Frost, press and publicity officer for Local Authority Road Safety Officers' Association (LARSOA), welcomed the new targets Government had proposed on road safety.

He said: "Any real measures that can be taken to reduce the number of people killed or injured on Britain's roads should be welcomed. It is a fact that injury severities are much reduced in collisions that happen at slower speeds.

"Any life lost on the roads is one too many and we support tough targets that aim to safeguard all road-users.

"However, we believe there are better ways forward than the idea of mapping dangerous roads, as we would not want drivers to use the maps as an excuse for their own dangerous behaviour.

"The focus has to stay on us all as road-users. Whenever we take to the roads it is our individual actions that play the critical part in improving road casualties. Everyone must take responsibility for their own actions, if the number of people being killed and injured is to fall.

"It is also worth noting that when the current Government targets were released on serious injury and death rates, many people thought they were unachievable because they were considered too challenging. Road safety professionals across the country rose to the challenge and will continue to work hard with engineering and enforcement colleagues to meet the tough new targets, if it means we can reduce the total devastation that is left behind by fatal and serious road crashes.

"Every death and serious injury in a community leaves a devastating legacy on families, friends and colleagues."

For more information contact Karen Westcott at DTW on 01287 610404

ABOUT LARSOA

LARSOA is a national road safety organisation representing road safety officers (RSOs) employed in local government across the UK.

LARSOA represents 185 of the 200 eligible local authorities across the UK, assisting RSOs to fulfil their statutory role to reduce the number and severity of road casualties through education, training and publicity programmes.

LARSOA publishes an up-to-date round-up of road safety news from across the UK on its website www.larsoa.org.uk .

LARSOA also aims to influence national debate - government policy and action together with public opinion. The association works to achieve national recognition for road safety issues, commissions research into behaviour which contributes to road collisions and develops national road safety campaigns.

The association assists in identifying achievable national targets to reduce the number of collisions on the country's roads.