Road Safety Wales : Strategies
15/7/08
The three Fire and Rescue Services in Wales made their intention to drive down road traffic collision casualties very clear when they launched the all Wales Fire and Rescue Service Road Safety Strategy on Thursday 10 July.
The strategy is the first official and national pledge to the communities of Wales that Welsh Fire and Rescue Services will do all they can to help reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads in Wales.
Working in collaboration, South Wales, North Wales and Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Services have spent the last year developing the strategy which is published this month.
All three Fire and Rescue Service’s Principal Fire Officers and Chairs of the Fire Authorities visited the World Rescue Wales event at Cardiff International Arena on Thursday to mark the launch. World Rescue Wales showcases the skills of Firefighters from all over the globe in extricating and rescuing casualties from crashed vehicles.
Chair of the All-Wales group, Assistant Chief Fire Officer Kevin Barry of South Wales said,
“Rescues at Road Traffic Collisions have become a huge part of our operational response in recent years and Firefighters see the harsh consequences of dangerous driving every day. We are already working closely with our partners involved in road safety education and this strategy will strengthen these partnerships, helping us to achieve a common goal.”
Chair of South Wales Fire Authority, Councillor Anthony Ernest said,
“This document represents a strong commitment from the Fire Authorities to the reduction in Road Traffic Collision casualties in Wales. We have long worked to the theory that prevention is better than the cure with fires, and in our duty as a primary rescuer at road traffic collisions, we want to work with the same concept for road safety. The all Wales approach gives consistency to the proactive the work we do.”
The Wales Fire and Rescue Service Strategy is designed to support both the national road safety strategy for Wales and the Chief Fire Officers’ Association (CFOA) Road Safety Group Strategy.
Download the All Wales Fire and Rescue Service Road Safety Strategy here PDF format 1.15mb
Casualty Reduction Targets
In 2000, the Welsh Assembly Government set targets for the reduction in road casualties in the period up to 2010. Compared with the average for 1994-1998 we want to see:
- a 40% reduction in the total number of people killed and seriously injured;
- a 50% reduction in the total number of children killed or seriously injured;
- a 10% reduction in the rate of slight casualties per 100 million vehicle kilometres travelled.
Good progress is being made towards achieving these targets. By 2005 the number of people killed or seriously injured had fallen by 34% and the number of children killed or seriously injured had fallen by 53%. The slight casualty rate had fallen by 23%.
The Strategy sets out a range of measures designed to help achieve the targets. Both the full document and the Executive Summary can be found here.
In 2003 the Welsh Assembly Government launched its first Walking and Cycling Strategy for Wales. Its broad aims are twofold:
- To increase opportunities for walking and cycling for work-related journeys and for leisure.
- To integrate walking and cycling more fully with public transport in Wales’s sustainable travel programme.
