Derbyshire joins Global Road Safety Week focusing on protecting vulnerable road users on low speed roads

Roads with low speed limits are at the heart of our community. They are where our Derbyshire residents walk, live and play - yet roads with 30mph limits are where 61% of injuries in road collisions have taken place over the previous two years.

Between 2019 and 2020 on the roads of Derbyshire, 2966 injuries occurred in road collisions within 30mph zones. These collisions resulted in 460 suffering from serious injuries and 34 people, sadly, losing their lives. 305 of these collisions were linked to speed being a contributory factor, leading to 13 fatalities and 83 serious injuries. 

The United Nations Global Road Safety Week, is taking place between 17-23 May 2021 and the focus for this year is speeding on 30mph and low speed inner city and town roads - to prevent further loss of life or injury.

Throughout this week, our Roads Policing Unit and Casualty Reduction Enforcement Support Team (CREST) will be out across the county, targeting routes with high harm statistics, where individuals have either been killed or seriously injured due to speeding offences. Our teams will also be focusing their efforts on areas across Derbyshire which receive continual community speeding complaints.

Speeding is a Fatal Four offence and driving at high speeds effects stopping distances, impacts on driver reaction times and creates a greater risk of death and injury. In a crash, 1mph can mean the difference between life and death.

Protecting vulnerable road users

Pedestrians are at considerably greater risk of death if impact speeds are above 20mph. This risk is even greater for the young and elderly in our community.

• Across the world, every day 3000 children and young people are killed or seriously injured on the road.
• Driving can be unpredictable and if something unexpected happens on the road ahead, such as a child stepping out from between parked cars, it is a driver’s speed that will determine whether they can stop in time and, if they can’t stop, how hard they will hit.
• A vehicle travelling at 20mph would stop in time to avoid a child running out three car-lengths in front. The same vehicle travelling at 25mph would not be able to stop in time, and would hit the child at 18mph. This is roughly the same impact as a child falling from an upstairs window.
• A pedestrian hit at 30mph has a very significant, one-in-five, chance of being killed. This rises significantly to a one-in-three chance if they are hit at 35mph.

Speeding kills - even small increases in speed can lead to an increase in the severity of the impact of a collision.

T/Sergeant Luke Christian, leading Derbyshire Constabulary’s ‘Global Road Safety Week’, said: “This week of campaigning will provide both enforcement and education for offending drivers.

“Every day, those who choose to take to the roads, driving recklessly and at high speeds, places innocent lives at risk. We’ve seen time and time again, the devastation that road collisions cause to victims, families and to our local communities.

“The risk of death or serious injury in a road traffic collision rises exponentially at speeds in excess of 20mph. Speed always contributes to the severity of an incident and normally each crash could easily be prevented.

“Low speed streets make it a safe environment for our vulnerable road users to walk, cycle and enjoy the beautiful outdoor spaces our great county provides.

“We urge people to watch your speed - everyone has their part to play in keeping Derbyshire a safe place for all.”