Every road victim counts - that is the message as the emergency services and volunteers who support the families of victims of road traffic collisions as Road Safety Week gets under way.
One person loses their life on our roads on average every week and 57 have died so far this year (as of 13/11/24).
More than 4,000 people were killed or seriously injured in Northern Ireland from 2019 to 2023.
The victims of those crashes, including those who have been injured, their families, friends and the emergency services, are at the centre of Road Safety Week 2024 (17-23 November).
Road safety is an issue for all of us as a society. Every single week, at least one person – a mum, a dad, a son, a daughter, a friend - is not coming home to their family and their loved ones. These are people, not just a statistic, and their lives are shattered and will never be the same again. Long after the headlines are forgotten, victims have to live with the loss, the memories and the thoughts of what could have been.
We also depend on our emergency services to attend serious collisions to help prevent loss of life. They are people doing a job, but we must remember the impact the scenes they attend must have. Many families who have had loved ones killed or seriously injured on our roads really value the support they receive from the emergency services and the charitable organisations that provide them support.
We wish to thank them for the very essential and often lifesaving role they play and appeal to all road users to think about their behaviour. Be mindful of others and proceed with care at all times, to ensure everyone gets home safe.
We would encourage you to share road safety messaging so it reaches as wide an audience as possible and to talk about it with your friends and family – by doing so, you could be helping to save a life.
The harsh truth is that we all need to wise up when we are using our roads because if we don’t, the number of deaths will continue to rise.
This Road Safety Week, we are encouraging people to take the ‘Road Safety Pledge’ to be as safe as possible on the road. By signing up to the Share the Road to Zero pledge, you are committing to be the best road user than you can be – whether as a driver, passenger, pedestrian, cyclist, motorcyclist or horse rider, and adopt positive road user behaviours. ‘Share the Road to Zero’ is a road safety community engagement programme that encourages all road users to take personal responsibility for their own safety and by doing so also the safety of others on our roads. Pledging is quick, easy and free at www.sharetheroadtozero.com and you will join with the many others, both individuals and organisations, who receive regular advice on how to stay safe as you use the road.
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