A devastating 12 road deaths in just two weeks have left shockwaves across Cheshire. Chronicle reporter PAUL MANNION met Cheshire Safer Roads Partnership to find out what is being done to combat deaths on our roads.
CHESHIRE Safer Roads Partnership was set up in 2007 and brought together several agencies, including Cheshire County Council, Cheshire Police and Cheshire Fire And Rescue Service, to help save lives on our roads.
Its three basic principles are education, engineering and enforcement. Educating road users, maintaining the county’s roads and enforcing traffic law.
Manager Lee Murphy said: “The events of the last few weeks have brought things into focus but this is going on all the time.
“It is not normal to have so many deaths on our roads in such a short space of time but, unfortunately, it is normal for people to die on our roads. Every year about 60 people die on Cheshire roads.
“Sadly it takes something as severe as a death to get the message across.
“There is no one answer or one cause. Most crashes are down to more than one factor but there are things we can do to mitigate.
“There are lots of reasons – drivers impaired by drink and drugs, people driving too close to other cars or driving too quickly for the conditions or the roads.
“Messing about with friends, playing with the stereo, young drivers who aren’t experienced at night driving, or driving on the weekend with friends in the car, things like that will lead to collisions.
“Another big issue is people not wearing seat belts, young people particularly.”
The shocking events over the last two weeks have seen 12 people killed on roads in Cheshire, the most recent late last Friday evening when 12-year-old cyclist Joshua Kyle Easton, of Oldfield Drive, Vicars Cross, was in collision with a van near a petrol station.
“There are about 700 crashes that result in serious injury in Cheshire each year,” said Lee.
“Something has to change in terms of our mental state. There is still an acceptance, an attitude, that it just won’t happen to me. We need to see the roads as a privilege rather than a right.
“In Cheshire we are doing really well, numbers are coming down and the roads are getting safer, but one death is still too many.”
Cheshire Safer Roads Partnership works tirelessly to engage the public, working in schools, with campaigns like “red routes”, roadshows in town centres and supporting national safety campaigns.
Their new campaign, Dark Knights, was launched last week.
Communications manager Emma Turner said: “As the nights draw in, people who are used to driving in daylight suddenly find themselves driving in the dark and they should be paying more attention to the roads, but often this is not the case.
“Pedestrians and cyclists are also more at risk because it becomes harder to spot them in the dark, especially if they are wearing dark clothing. Everyone should take extra measures to ensure they are visible in the dark such as wearing reflective clothing.”
