Today marks the start of the UN’s Global Road Safety Week. All around the world, communities are coming together to organise events focused around the theme ‘Save Lives #SlowDown.’
"Speed is at the core of the global road traffic injury problem," notes WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan. "If countries were to address just this key risk, they would soon reap the rewards of safer roads, both in terms of lives saved and increases in walking and cycling, with profound and lasting effects on health."
54 people have been killed on Irish roads in 2017 already, of whom 21 were vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists, motor cyclists and pillion passengers). Approximately one third of all these accident fatalities are speed related. Drivers need to make the pledge and act to Save Lives #SlowDown.
This week will see the Garda Traffic Corps out in force, carrying out extra speed checks around Dublin. Love 30 will be holding a series of events on the 9th of May, asking drivers to make the pledge to ‘Save Lives #SlowDown.’ At 8.15am schoolchildren from Scoil Chaitríona on Mobhi Road will be out giving drivers their views on why they should slow down. At 11 am on Tuesday 9th May, Love 30 and the Garda Traffic Corps will be Monck Place, a known ‘rat run’ in Phibsboro, asking drivers to make the pledge to ‘Save Lives #SlowDown’. At 1pm on Tuesday 9th May, a cross-party Oireachtas group of cycling TDs and Senators will be showing their support for this campaign at the Leinster House gates on Kildare Street.
Welcoming the initiative, Inspector Ronan Barry of the Garda Traffic Corps called on everyone to take part this week. “Slowing down isn’t just for UN Global Road Safety Week,” he said. “We all need to take responsibility for saving lives on our roads.”
Love 30 is a coalition of cycling and community groups who campaign for lower speed limits to make our towns and cities safer and more pleasant places to live, work and play. “We are one group out of thousands of groups, all around the world, calling on drivers to slow down,” says Love 30’s Mairéad Forsythe. “We must accept that speed is a critical factor leading to deaths on our roads and change our behaviour accordingly.”
Dublin Cycling Campaign are also supporting this intiative. “In Dublin alone 3 cyclists have been killed off their bikes this year already,” said Colm Ryder of the Dublin Cycling Campaign. “It is a frightening situation that cannot continue. We are delighted that An Garda Síochána are carrying out these urban speed checks.”
Contact: Love 30, Mairéad Forsythe on 086-8337577 for more details