Scarlett McNally: Prioritising the health of our children by reducing road traffic deaths

Last year, 27 450 people were killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads.1 If these deaths or serious injury from road traffic crashes were a cancer, they’d represent the fifth leading new cancer diagnosis in the UK—with only prostate, lung, breast, and bowel cancer higher.2 This is a public health matter, and health inequalities play a big part. Children in the most deprived 20% of areas are six times more likely to be injured than those in the least deprived 20%, and 16 children are killed or seriously injured in road crashes every week on their way to or from school.3We know how to prevent this: a combination of environmental and driver behavioural changes. The Highway Code changed in January to mandate safer driving behaviours around vulnerable road users, such as leaving at least 1.5 m (5 ft) when overtaking a cyclist,4 but 61% of drivers are unaware of the…
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