Hambleton is backing a national campaign to help save lives and support people bereaved by road crashes.

It is supporting ‘Road Safety Week’ (November 10-16) organised by national road safety charity, BRAKE.

“This campaign helps to highlight the constant dangers on our roads,” said Hambleton Community Partnership member, Carl Boasman.

“Every day on UK roads nine people are killed and nearly ten times as many are seriously injured…..and a child is hurt or killed every 20 minutes.

“We can all make a commitment to improve our behaviour, whether that means taking more time to look twice at junctions, committing to not ever overtake unless it is totally safe, or simply always holding our children’s hands.”

This year’s campaign theme is ‘Family Safety: Stop…Imagine…Change’ to raise awareness on:

• the vital need for parents to ‘protect the ones they love
• the terrible devastation caused by death and injury on roads
• the need for drivers and parents to Stop. Imagine. Change - stop and imagine how horrendous it would be to lose a loved one in a road crash or cause a fatal crash. Take a long hard look at behaviour on roads, and change it for the better

And everyone is being asked to make the stay safe family promise:

• always cross roads safely - traffic is the single biggest killer of 12-16 year-olds
• always belt up in a car - an unrestrained back seat passenger can kill the driver by slamming into their head
• never break speed limits or drive dangerously - slower speeds save lives. If you hit a pedestrian at 35mph you are more than twice as likely to kill them than if you hit them at 30mph