Road safety charity Brake calls for 20mph areas around all schools

Brake, which campaigns to boost road safety, said cutting speed limits ‘saves lives’.

Department for Transport figures show 2,456 children aged under 16 were killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads last year, including 45 in Portsmouth and 225 in the rest of Hampshire, excluding Southampton.

Many councils have introduced 20mph zones around schools. Portsmouth was the first city in the UK to introduce widespread 20mph zones in residential areas back in 2007/8.

But Brake said nearly two-thirds of parents reported that some roads near their children’s schools have higher limits.

Brake campaigns manager Lucy Straker said: ‘This is a situation which is being replicated across the country.

‘We speak to lots of schools where teachers are doing everything they can to make the roads near their school safe, but ultimately they need support from their local council and decision-makers.

‘Why do we have to wait until a child is killed before we act?’

‘We know that excess speed is a factor in about a quarter of fatal crashes, and the physics is pretty straightforward: the faster a vehicle is travelling, the harder it hits and the greater the impact.

‘A crash at 30mph has twice the amount of kinetic energy as a crash at 20mph. Reducing speed saves lives.

‘We’re calling for roads around every school to have 20mph speed limits – and other measures to effectively reduce traffic speed – so children and their families can travel safely to and from school every day.’

Children from more than 700 schools and nurseries are expected to participate in Brake’s Kids Walk today, which involves walking in groups and calling for safe and healthy journeys without fear from traffic.

Schools taking part in Brake’s Kids Walk can run special road-safety-themed assemblies, lessons and fun activities, using free resources from Brake. Brake has also provided schools with a Kid’s manifesto for safe and healthy journeys that they can use to help them ask local or national decision-makers to make the roads around their school 20mph.