Meeting of the Parliament 19 November 2019
I thank Stuart McMillan for this motion, which is about an event that I have supported for many years. As convener of the cross-party group on accident prevention and safety awareness, I commend Brake for its perseverance and for establishing road safety week.
There have been a lot of interesting comments in the chamber this evening. Stuart McMillan spoke about our being kinder to one another when we are driving, and about consideration being part of that approach. That is an important message, and the point that we cannot fix this issue individually and that we have to do it as a community was very well made.
I will highlight a couple of things that are happening in my community.
A few months ago, I attended an event at an advocacy service for people with learning disabilities, where I met what is known as the clan, which is a bunch of people with learning disabilities. They were very concerned about an injury happening to one of their friends in the group as a result of crossing a road to a sports centre. That road is frequently crossed and very busy, and the sports centre is accessed by people of all ages and all abilities. There is no safe crossing there at all—no pedestrian crossing and no zebra crossing. The group is taking the campaign to the council and to the local area to highlight that we should, when we think about road safety, the nature of our streets and how they are used, and about caring for one other, consider that people have different perceptions of the risks that might be in front of them. That work will be presented to our cross-party group early next year. I look forward to that.
Through the cross-party group, I have got to know about the work of a logistics company, Gist Limited, that works in my area—it is based just outside my Motherwell and Wishaw constituency. Gist feels that it has a commitment to its community. It delivers to many small convenience stores and realises that it drives into our communities and housing areas. It thought that it could do something to improve safety for younger people.
Gist takes its articulated lorries into primary schools, and it has set up educational events that have demonstrated to young people the dangers of being in an articulated lorry at blind spots in particular, and how little can be seen of young people in their environment. The aim is to raise the awareness of young people in the area. It provides equipment, high-visibility vests for young people walking to and from school, and materials with safety messaging on them, for use in schools. It does that work as part of its community engagement. That is a wonderful example of how a company can come together with people and work with them to make our roads and communities safer.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents had its centenary last year, and it produced some safety messaging. One of its most successful campaigns was to do with people walking towards traffic holding a light when they were coming home. That was in the days before street lights were normal or in rural areas. It seemed quite radical at the time to ask people to do such things. It seemed quite radical to ask people to wear a seat belt—Stuart McMillan talked about that. However, safety messages get through to people over time, and people start to change their behaviour and respond in a way that should cause fewer road deaths in the future.
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