Road safety champions call for cyclists and pedestrians to be better protected - The Redditch Standard

Road safety champions call for cyclists and pedestrians to be better protected

Redditch Editorial 8th Sep, 2020   0

TWO road safety champions are calling for more to be done to protect pedestrians and cyclists from road traffic in general and specifically heavy goods vehicles.

The call comes from RoadPeace, the national charity for road crash victims and CLOCS – the Construction Logistics and Community Safety organisation.

It follows a £2billion investment by the government in local authorities to fund walking and cycling schemes as part of its Active Travel initiative in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Both organisations, joined by leaders in the construction industry, are calling on local authorities in the West Midlands to commit to CLOCS, so that the risk from construction traffic of death and injury on the roads is reduced.




CLOCS is a national standard developed by regulators and businesses to ensure the safest construction vehicle journeys.

It defines actions that are simple to implement and demonstrates ownership of community safety beyond the hoardings.


The risk posed by construction vehicles to vulnerable road users pre-Covid was already significant.

In 2018, there were 333 people killed or injured by vehicle types used in construction in the West Midlands.

Over the last five years (2014-2018), a total of 1,823 people walking, cycling and motorcycling have been killed or injured by vehicles commonly used in construction.

Additional cause for concern is that the increased number of people walking and cycling will coincide with increased government construction spend.

The current 11 per cent market share by local authorities is likely to rise as government has pledged to ‘Build, Build, Build’ our way out of the current economic crisis.

Nick Simmons, chief executive of RoadPeace said: “The increase in people walking and cycling as we come out of Covid, coupled with increased construction projects, will lead to death and injury if preventative action is not taken.

“The CLOCS scheme mitigates the threat posed by construction vehicles, and we strongly urge local authorities to commit to it.

“Unfortunately, at RoadPeace we see the devastation that these road crashes cause, and far too many involve construction vehicles.”

To find out more about the campaign, visit clocs.org.uk/clocsworks

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