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National Road Victim Month: August

RBFRS is supporting National Road Victim Month this august by urging Berkshire motorists to take extra care while driving to avoid road traffic collisions (RTCs).

National Road Victim Month is an initiative run by the charity RoadPeace (www.roadpeace.org), who chose August to commemorate the deaths of two well-known road crash victims – Bridget Driscoll, the first ever car crash victim, who died on 17 August 1896 and Diana, Princess of Wales, who died on 31 August 1997. RoadPeace also chose August to highlight the dangers on our roads as there is an increased danger from traffic both to children during the holiday period and to holidaymakers at home and abroad.

In the UK, almost 3,000 people are killed and 500,000 injured on the roads each year, while across the world a staggering 1.2 million are killed and over 50 million are injured.

Rescuing people from road traffic collisions is increasingly becoming a bigger part of a firefighters’ role, with RBFRS attending 610 RTCs in 2007 and 621 in 2008. Reduce your risk on the roads by not drinking or taking drugs when driving, keeping to the speed limit and not letting yourself get distracted behind the wheel.