Spotlight on road deaths

A road safety partnership in Staffordshire is throwing its weight behind the first United Nations Road Safety Week from next Monday.

It is aimed at highlighting the daily death toll on the world's roads.

The week has been organised by the UN and is being promoted by the Lichfield and Tamworth Road Safety Task Group.

The group is promoting the week – which runs until April 29 – in order to help reduce the local casualty rate which averages six people killed or seriously injured every week.

The theme is 'safety is no accident'.

Nick Lloyd, chairman of the Lichfield and Tamworth Group said: "This year we are targeting motorcyclists, young drivers and their passengers.

"Speed is often a major factor in creating casualties on our roads.

"Therefore we are using a combined programme of education, training, publicity and targeted enforcement to make the week and the rest of the year as safe as possible.

"Death and injury caused by road crashes is one of the main challenges facing our modern society, which is the reason the UN has for the first time dedicated a week to cutting the toll," he added.

The Lichfield and Tamworth Road Safety Group is a partnership with members drawn from Lichfield District Council, Tamworth District Council, Staffordshire County Council, Staffordshire Police and Staffordshire Fire and Rescue.