Road safety partners launch fund to help eradicate death and injuries on Greater Manchester's roads
- Vision Zero Innovation Fund will be used to support the Vision Zero ambition – to halve the number of deaths and life-changing injuries on Greater Manchester’s roads by the end of the decade and eradicate them entirely by 2040.
- Almost 10,000 people killed or seriously injured on city-region's roads since 2014.
- Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) attend more road traffic collisions than fires – nearly 2,000 a year, or five every day.
On Thursday (21 November), during national Road Safety Week, Greater Manchester’s road safety partners came together to launch a £1million fund to improve road safety across the city-region at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service’s (GMFRS) state-of-the-art Training and Safety Centre in Bury.
The Vision Zero Innovation Fund will be used to support Greater Manchester’s Vision Zero ambition – to eradicate death and life-changing injuries on our roads by 2040, while reducing it by 50% by the end of the decade.
The fund, available to partners of the Safer Roads Greater Manchester Partnership, can be used on engineering, education, training, publicity, or enforcement projects aimed at progressing that ambition.
Almost 10,000 people have been killed or seriously injured on Greater Manchester’s roads since 2014 and in 2023 alone, 754 people were seriously injured and 45 lost their lives – each death was preventable.
Kate Green, Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester for Safer and Stronger Communities, said:
“Deaths and serious injuries on our roads have been normalised for too long and there is no other form of transport where this would be tolerated.
“Road casualties have an immeasurable impact on families, friends and communities. This is why we’ve set out our Vision Zero ambition – to end all road deaths and life-changing injuries.
“Bold action is needed. Our Vision Zero Innovation Fund is just one part of our commitment to delivering this change. I’m excited to see the new and innovative ways our emergency services, local authorities and wider partners can work together to achieve this.”
In 2022, road casualties in Greater Manchester cost almost £500m in medical, emergency services, damage to property, insurance costs and lost output, and this does not account for the devastating human cost of losing a loved one.
GMFRS now attends more road traffic collisions than fires.
Dave Russel, Chief Fire Officer of GMFRS and Chair of the Vision Zero Strategic Steering Group, said:
“Our service is fully committed to working together with our partners to deliver the change we need to eradicate deaths and life-changing injuries from our roads and the Innovation Fund will support us on that journey.
“Over the past 12 months, our crews have attended nearly 2,000 road traffic collisions and too often witness the heartbreaking consequences of road traffic collisions on the families, friends and loved ones of those involved.
“By working together and taking decisive action, we can prevent unnecessary deaths and life-changing injuries and make Greater Manchester a safer place for us all.”
The Vision Zero Innovation Fund is part of a wider commitment by road safety partners across the city-region to eliminate all traffic fatalities and life-changing injuries while increasing safe, healthy and equitable mobility for all.
The Safer Roads Partnership, which includes emergency services, local authorities and wider road safety partners, runs various intervention and prevention projects throughout the year while Transport for Greater Manchester continues to invest millions in ‘School Streets’ and an integrated and affordable public transport system that is accessible to all.
Greater Manchester endorsed a draft Vision Zero Strategy in January 2024, and an Action Plan setting out the steps emergency services, local authorities and partner agencies intend to take to deliver it will be considered by leaders of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on Friday 29 November.
Article Published: 22/11/2024 18:51 PM
