Injury Team support Road Safety Week

The Personal Injury team are helping road safety charity Brake raise awareness of Road Safety Week, running this year from Monday 17 to Sunday 23rd November.  Dan Thompson, Partner within the team explains their hope that their support through sponsorship as well as other activities can help reduce road traffic collisions across Hampshire.

“With winter now upon us the roads are a much more dangerous place, and road crashes are the biggest cause of death among young people, so Road Safety Week is of utmost importance,” begins Dan.  “Road Safety Week’s theme this year is Look Out For Each Other; a poignant message for car users to not only take care of other car users, but also pedestrians, cyclist and motorbikes.  Figures from 2012 show that the number of people killed on our roads was 1,754.  This is significantly lower than the 5,500 people each year that it was in the mid 80’s, but it still means that five people are killed on British roads every day.

“It’s for this reason that we felt compelled to be involved in this years Road Safety Week, now in its 18th year, to raise awareness across Hampshire of the message to look out for one another on the roads and help to save lives,” continues Dan.  “It’s easy to forget the simple measures that we can take to help save lives; being courteous to other drivers, slowing down when in built-up areas, adapting your driving to the weather conditions, and taking it slower at junctions and on bends.  The advice is not only for vehicle users however, as pedestrians and cyclists are reminded to wear high visibility clothing to ensure they can be seen.”

The Injury Team at Warner Goodman LLP have recently become Corporate Donors of Brake, and have undertaken a number of activities to support them.  Dan continues, “For Road Safety Week we have sponsored a banner which will be displayed outside St James Primary School in West End, Southampton to make the parents and children aware of the week.  We’d also like to encourage them to talk to others outside the school, such as their family and friends.  Four members of the Injury Team also took part in the Walk the Test Way charity walk in October, in which we raised over £500 for the charity.”

Joe Burns, Corporate Fundraiser at Brake, commented, “We’re delighted Warner Goodman LLP is doing its bit to save lives on our roads by getting involved with Road Safety Week and helping to spread the look out for each other message. Local support for the road safety cause is vital if we are to achieve our goal of putting an end to road deaths and injuries and the terrible suffering they cause. We can go a long way to achieving this if we all commit to look out for each other on roads, especially drivers helping to protect those on foot and bike, who are most vulnerable. Ultimately, we are all just human beings trying to get around, with equal right to use the roads, not competing tribes.”

Dan concludes, “In our line of work, we see almost on a daily basis the life-changing consequences for those who have been victims of a road traffic collisions.  The number of injuries caused on the roads is something that we can help prevent just by taking extra care, and that’s the message we’re hoping to convey during Road Safety Week, and through our ongoing work with Brake.”

To find out more about Road Safety Week, you can visit the Brake website www.roadsafetyweek.org.uk, or to contact the Injury Team at Warner Goodman LLP, call 0800 91 92 93 or visit their section of the website here.

ENDS

This is for information purposes only and is no substitute for, and should not be interpreted as, legal advice.  All content was correct at the time of publishing and we cannot be held responsible for any changes that may invalidate this article.