ROAD SAFETY WEEK

That this House supports Road Safety Week, which takes place on22 to 28 November 2010; notes that the main theme is the need for drivers to slow down to protect children, and to raise awareness of the 195 children killed and 4,188 seriously injured on UK roads in 2009; further notes that although the UK has the second lowest road death rate in the EU, its child pedestrian death rate is worse than 10 other EU countries, and eight times higher than Sweden's; further notes that during Road Safety Week children, parents, schools and families bereaved by speeding drivers will be calling on drivers to slow down to 20 mph or below around schools, homes and shops; calls on the Government to reduce the default urban limit to 20 mph in line with research from a large study, of the impact of 20 mph zones in London demonstrating that 20 mph limits are associated with a 41.9 per cent. reduction in road casualties, by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; and congratulates the work of Brake, the road safety charity, which organises Road Safety Week and seeks to decrease road crashes through education and campaigns and reduce the suffering of bereaved and injured road crash victims through support services.