Road safety campaigners in Birmingham are calling for a state of emergency declared over the lack of road safety in the city.
The campaign group ‘Better Streets for Birmingham’ held a demonstration today and for the third time in two weeks, increasing their calls for action by local leaders and West Midlands Police.
Last Sunday, a 60-year-old man was killed and another pedestrian injured when a driver ploughed onto a pavement in the Jewellery Quarter, just outside the city centre.
Earlier in the year, a four-year-old was killed on the pavement by an ‘unfit’ driver as they walked home with their Mother.
Since the start of the year 10 people have been killed and 23 seriously injured in Birmingham because of dangerous driving.
Chair of Better Streets for Birmingham, Mat MacDonald told GB News “our roads are in crisis.”
He said: “Someone dies on our roads every two weeks in a collision, but the effects go beyond the tragedy for those individuals, their families and their communities, it goes to everyone who has to walk our streets.
“People are in a perpetual state of anxiety at the speeding cars, the lack of enforcement, the fact that people always jump red lights, use their mobile phone whilst driving and speeding through residential areas.
“We will not back down from our calls for safer streets in this city.”
West Midlands police say officers will be conducting high-visibility patrols and deploying a range of resources to deter and detect dangerous driving behaviour.
In the region alone, more than 5,300 motorists were caught committing ‘Fatal Four’ offences last year. 2,648 were arrested for driving while under the influence, 1,290 motorists were caught speeding, 480 caught without a seatbelt, and 942 caught using mobile phones.
However, despite the police increasing resources towards this problem, both Better Streets for Birmingham and Birmingham City Council are calling on the force to declare a state of emergency on the issue.
In a letter to West Midlands Police Chief Constable, Craig Guildford, yesterday, Councillor Majid Mahmood said: “We feel a Road Safety Emergency must be declared and request the immediate standing up of a Gold Command to co-ordinate a multi-agency response.”
The council Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport requested measures such as: increase in enforcement of traffic measures, reduction of speed limits from 40mph to 30mph and the implementation of pilot schemes using temporary measures to ‘make the road environment safer’.
Further to the calls from the local council, newly elected West Midlands Mayor, Richard Parker said: “I promised to do whatever it takes to prevent people being tragically and avoidably killed and seriously injured on our roads. I intend to deliver on that promise.”
As well as confirming meetings with local leaders to discuss the problem, Parker added: “I will raise this issue with the Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh, in our meeting next week.”
Source Agencies
