Transport for London boss: Make speeding as socially unacceptable as drink-driving offences

Speed was a 'contributory factor' in 37 per cent of road collisions in the three years
Jeremy Selwyn
Ross Lydall @RossLydall26 November 2019

London's transport chief today called for speeding to become as socially unacceptable as drink-driving after a rise in road deaths.

TfL commissioner Mike Brown called on motorists to curb their speeds as he revealed that there had already been more fatalities this year than in the whole of 2018. His intervention came as construction work began to introduce 20mph limits on all TfL roads within the congestion charge zone.

Speed was a “contributory factor” in 37 per cent of road collisions in the three years to last December, resulting in 128 deaths and 2,256 serious injuries.

Mr Brown said: “So far this year, 118 people have died on London’s roads. That is more than the figure for the whole of last year. Every one of these numbers is not a number. It’s a person.

“Fundamentally, and I make no apology for using this analogy, there are generations that recall our parents and grandparents thinking that it’s okay to have a drink and get behind the wheel. That is now, culturally, totally unacceptable. My aim is to have speeding [treated] exactly the same in that ­cultural shift.”

There are plans to put in 20mph limits on congestion zone roads
PA Archive/PA Images

A total of 112 were killed and a further 3,954 suffered serious injuries on London’s roads in 2018. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorbike or scooter riders accounted for 91 of the deaths.

This year’s total increased to 119 when Lukasz Wiergolinski, 35, died after his car collided with a lorry at the junction of Morden Road and Jubilee Way in Merton last Thursday.

TfL said that last year there were 165 alcohol-related, and 719 speed-related road collisions involving death or serious injury. Its Vision Zero plan is to eliminate road deaths in London by 2041. All “red routes” within the C-zone, such as the Victoria and Albert embankments, Millbank, Tower Hill and Blackfriars Road will be 20mph by next May.

Speed cameras will be recalibrated with the penalty of a £100 fine and three points. Lower limits are already in force on London Road, St George’s Circus, Westminster Bridge Road and Newington Butts.

Gareth Powell, TfL’s managing director of surface transport, said: “We do need to change the tolerance that people have of speeding and raise their awareness to the dangers it causes.”

TfL has been using hard-hitting TV adverts to encourage motorists to slow down after 61 per cent of passengers who responded to a survey said they felt uncomfortable at the speed being driven by family and friends.

Research has found that a pedestrian hit by a vehicle travelling at 30mph is up to five times more likely to die than one hit at 20mph.

According to City Hall, between 2008 and 2018 speeds fell from 8.7mph to 7.1mph in central London, 12.5mph to 11.6mph in inner London and 20.3mph to 19.3mph in outer London.

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