Road Safety Week

Road Safety Week is Brake's biggest road safety campaign. Every year, thousands of schools, organisations and communities get involved to share important road safety messages, remember people affected by road death and injury, and raise funds to help Brake care for more road victims and campaign for safe roads for everyone.

Every year on UK roads, more than 1700 people are killed and a further 30,000 are left with serious, life-changing injuries. The numbers are staggering, and there has been no significant reduction in the last 10 years.

Road casualties are not just statistics. Behind the data are families grieving, families struggling and forced to navigate through the complex process that often follow a road crash. Behind every crash is a family whose lives will never be the same. A family that needs support.

Brake is leading on the development of a Road Victims’ Charter, calling on our government to provide sustainable funding and parity of care for road victims and their families, whoever they are, wherever they live, and whether or not a crime has occurred.

Road Safety Week is a chance to bring communities together to remember loved ones who have died or support those who have suffered life-changing injury in road crashes.
It helps us learn why we need robust investigation into the causes of road crashes, so we can understand why they happen and prevent future road death and harm.
Road Safety Week provides expert emotional and practical support to thousands of road victim families during their darkest and most difficult times.

As I approach my 20th year of driving, I can safely say I've had my fair share of narrow escapes and idiotic choices. I've learned so much in my 20 years of driving and witnessed (and in my early twenties, been part of) a lot of dangerous activity and negligence.

I will openly admit that I was a moron in my teens and early twenties, I felt invincible. Regularly driving at 80mph in a car with a 0% crumple zone, eating, smoking and even texting whilst driving. Each habit and bad choice I made could have been catastrophic, yet I didn't think any of them were life threatening. In fact according to the AA: 52% of people admit to eating, 17% admit to smoking, 3% text and 5% make phone calls (without hands free) whilst driving.

I think those statistics are rather on the low side, based on the number of people i see looking at their crotch whilst driving along roads.

"Using a mobile phone was a contributory factor in almost 1% of accidents resulting in casualties in Great Britain". This statistic means that 17 deaths and 300 life changing injuries are caused by people using their phones whilst driving each year.

Road Safety Week really helps organisations highlight the dangers of driving and helps educate and remind those who feel "invincible" that driving can kill.