SECOND ROAD SAFETY CONFERENCE

On 11 October we held our second Road Safety Conference. Around 100 people attended and we had a great day with some really interesting talks and met some important contacts. Particular thanks to Ted Jeffery and Jayne Jones who have helped us tremendously and put in so much work over many months to make the conference happen. Thanks to Langstone Community Council, Heather Jones and Celtic Manor for their help and financial support and to Thomas Carroll for helping us to fund the event.

Some interesting key points:

· WE FORGET OUR MORALS WHEN DRIVING! It has almost become acceptable/understandable to have road rage, acceptable to speed and put others at risk, acceptable to shout at each other when we think others are not driving 'properly'

· WE HAVE BECOME BLIND TO THE PROBLEM OF A CAR BEING A DANGEROUS MACHINE

· WE BUILD OUR TOWNS FOR CARS AND THEN WONDER WHY IT IS DANGEROUS TO WALK

· MOTORING IS DANGEROUS BUT NOT DANGEROUS ENOUGH - (the effects of collision are devastating but people mostly get away with an awful lot)

· Traumatic Brain Injury is the Silent epidemic - It is one of the LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH and long term disability and 50% of TBI's are from Road collision -

· Most are aged 18-24 years

· Most deaths are on RURAL ROADS - serious and slight injury more likely on urban roads

· New drivers aged around 18 years SIX TIMES more likely to have a collision than their parents (new drivers at 30 years 3 x more likely than 40 year old drivers)

· Wales has a greater problem with new drivers involved in collisions than the rest of the UK

· LOOMING is a term used to describe how we perceive the speed of oncoming vehicles. As humans we have difficulty with assessing the speed of oncoming vehicles for example at ROAD JUNCTIONS when pulling out. Children have great difficulty with looming -

· ELEVATED SPEED PUSHES THE JUDGEMENT TASK OUT OF THE RELIABLE RANGE OF THE OBSERVER!!!! (we have more difficulty in judging speeds at higher levels)

· 87 Horses and 43 people were killed in collisions involving horses last year. 80% were due to drivers driving TOO FAST or TOO CLOSE and were avoidable

· in 2017/18 3,600 people were hospitalised from horse riding/ car collision in UK

· 25% OF PEOPLE THINK 60 MPH IS A SAFE SPEED TO DRIVE WHERE YOU MIGHT ENCOUNTER HORSES, PEDESTRIANS OR CYCLISTS!!!!!!!!!!!

· There are 500 Community Speedwatch schemes across Wales instigated by GOSAFE

· Extended hours of speed camera usage in not so obvious locations are being rolled out. More frequent visits to popular speed detection sites will be made

Julian closed the day with an emotional speech:

Rhiannon died nearly two and a half years ago. It still doesn’t feel possible. I think about her every day, the collision, what we should have done, how unlucky she was and what she would be doing now if she were still alive. These thoughts hurt, they hurt every day and they make me sad every day. Time does not always heal; this hurts as much as it ever did. Five healthy people are killed on the UK roads every day and 70 are seriously injured.

What are we doing? Every day five more families feel like us. That’s a Manchester arena every week, a Grenville Tower every fortnight. If this happened in any other area of life, there would be uproar. We simply accept this as collateral damage on our journey from A to B. We encourage it by speeding, using mobile phones and attitudes such as road rage.

When Rhiannon died, I thought that no one should have to suffer this. It stunned me that so many must. I hoped that in some way I could reduce the numbers. Those of you working in the field of road safety have shown today what effort is being made. Your work is brilliant, and I hope will get us to where we want to be – the so-called “Vision Zero”. It saddens me that progress is so slow. Road deaths cost the UK economy huge amounts of money and grief, but relatively so little is spent on prevention. Residents asking local governments for road safety measures are generally ignored. National Governments generally provide lip service but little more. The lane through Llandevaud Village has a 60mph speed limit. There is a sign telling you to slow down to 50mph as you reach the main road. Langstone school has a road going past with a 40mph speed limit. 40% of schools in Newport do not have 20mph zones. What are we playing at? It is time residential roads were for residents not the God Car.

We have the weekend to think about it, then Monday we have work to do and lives to save – let’s get on with it.