Road safety
For many young people in London, living around the busy streets of the capital, it is easy to forget how dangerous the roads can be. The UK has one of the worst child pedestrian fatality rates among European countries, although there have been recent improvements.
In London in 2006, there were 2,241 child casualties over a half of which were child pedestrians.
Many of these accidents could probably have been avoided if the victim had been more aware of the risks associated with London's roads.
"Don't die before you've lived"
The Mayor and Transport for London want to reduce the number of teenagers killed or seriously injured on London’s roads and they have run a hard-hitting advert in cinemas under the theme, ‘Don’t die before you’ve lived’. The campaign charts the potential lives of young people, as they follow their dreams to stardom, and then shows their lives tragically ended by road accidents, before they have had the opportunity to experience those celebrity lives in reality. There will be some activity taking place later this year on the theme of road safety.
The good news
The good news is that the rate of child casualties on London’s roads has reduced significantly over recent years.
There is a national casualty target of a 50 per cent reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured by the year 2010. By the end of 2005, severe casualties in London were 62 per cent below this baseline.
As a result of this progress, new, tougher targets were introduced to reduce the number of children killed and seriously injured on London’s roads by 60 per cent by 2010.
Although the rate of serious child casualties has gradually declined, the decline for black African and black Caribbean children has been slower. This means that black children are at twice the risk of death or injury as white children.
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