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South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership
News
14 Jun 2023
STRIDING FOR SAFE STREETS
Rotherham pupils have taken to the streets to promote their right to get to school safely.

Today (14 June), Wickersley Northfield Primary School joined more than 90,000 pupils from across the UK taking part in road safety charity Brake’s Kids Walk.

To put the spotlight on the issue, Police Community Support Officers (PCSO) from Maltby carried out speed checks with pupils during the busy school run.

A spokeswoman for the South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership (SYSRP) said: “Well done to the pupils and staff from Northfield Primary for making a stand against unsafe behaviour on our roads.

“Our children deserve safe footpaths, crossing places and slow traffic and today are encouraging their grown-ups to play their part in keeping them safe.”

She added: “Tragically, on average, six children are killed or seriously injured on roads in Britain every day – that’s equivalent to a whole classroom of children every week.

“As a partnership we believe that one death or serious injury is one too many and that’s why we are supporting Brake’s campaign and the need for everyone to play their part in road safety.”

As well as raising awareness about road safety, Brake’s Kids Walk will promote the health and environmental benefits of walking, cycling or wheeling to school and call for 20mph limits outside all schools.

Through short, supervised walk, pupils will also highlight the things that children need to make active travel journeys on foot or by bike: safe footpaths, cycle paths, safe crossing places, slow traffic and clean traffic.

Lucy Straker, Campaigns Manager at Brake, said:“We’re delighted that Wickersley Northfield is getting involved and helping children shout out for their right to make safe and healthy journeys, every day.

"It’s every child’s right to be able to walk in their community without fear of traffic and pollution and it is vital that children can walk safely in the places where they live.

“This year we hope to inspire as many children, schools and families as possible through our Brake’s Kids Walk event."

In South Yorkshire, in 2021, 336 children (aged 16 and under) were injured in a road traffic collision. Of those children, 104 were seriously injured.

South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership has signed up to Vision Zero – an international pledge to eliminate all death and serious injuries from local roads. This can only be achieved though shared responsibility for road safety among local councils, emergency services and road users themselves.

Brake is a national road safety charity, founded in 1995, that exists to stop deaths, serious injuries and pollution on roads, and to care for families bereaved and injured in road crashes.

 
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