UK records no fatalities on Project EDWARD day
The UK was one of 15 European countries to record no fatalities on 21 September 2017 – Project EDWARD day – according to figures published by the organisers TISPOL.
Project EDWARD (European Day Without A Road Death) was conceived by TISPOL – the European Traffic Police Network – to ‘spearhead significant and sustained reduction in death and serious injury on roads across the world’.
SERP supported the initiative with more than a dozen road safety-related events staged across the county – ranging from young driver activities to pedestrian training, Bikeability cycle training, community speed watch and a ‘surround a town’ event in Chelmsford.
‘Surround a town’ saw Essex Police and road safety officers interacting with offending motorists at various sites around Chelmsford. Essex County Fire and Rescue personnel also road safety provided information to members of the public in the town centre.
SERP also invited schools to take part in a road safety poetry competition, with poems relating to issues such as walking to school, driving, being a passenger, horse riding and cycling.
The Project EDWARD 2017 figures published today (20 Oct) show 43 road deaths across Europe. Both the UK and Ireland reported no fatalities, as did Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
The highest number of deaths were reported in Poland (10), followed by Greece and Romania – both with six.
In terms of social media activity, from 19-21 Sept, there were 8,813 tweets using the #ProjectEDWARD hashtag. This equates to a social reach of 25m users – eclipsing last year’s total of 19.5m.
On the day itself, the hashtag #ProjectEDWARD trended at number one in Ireland and also reached number four in the UK and five in Germany.
Ruth Purdie, TISPOL general secretary, said:
“We are very grateful to everyone who signed the pledge, recorded a video, organised an event and assisted with spreading the Project EDWARD message.
“It’s time to take a look at how we can continue to innovate for Project EDWARD in 2018 and beyond, so we’re ready to talk to any organisations interested in working with us as we strive to make zero fatalities a reality on our roads.”
20 October 2017