By Joshua Robinson – 

A plan to eradicate all road deaths and serious injuries across the region by 2040 has officially launched. The West Yorkshire Vision Zero Strategy is a development that will improve road safety and save lives.

The strategy will focus on the safe system approach: safe roads, behaviours, speeds, vehicles, and effective post-collision response.

Under each of these themes sit objectives for the short and longer term but at the strategy’s heart is the message that everyone has a responsibility to keep people safe on our roads, and we must all work together to create the lasting change needed.

Emergency services, local authorities, National Highways, victim support services, and road safety campaigners are all backing the strategy, as are Calderdale couple, Bev and Steve Gough, whose daughter, Naomi, 19, tragically lost her life due to a road traffic collision.

Bev and Steve set up a road safety charity, the Naomi Cheri Gough Foundation, in their daughter’s memory. Speaking on what happened to Naomi, they said: “It’s been a nightmare since. You live a life sentence and it’s always like the horrors of that night were only yesterday.”

“Something that really hurts to this day and always will do, is that we couldn’t have a wedding for her. As a proud father I didn’t have the honour of walking her down the aisle in white. The only way we could do that was in a white coffin and that will never go away.”

“Naomi had plans, she wanted to get married and have children. We should have more grandchildren. Our grandchildren, who never met Naomi ask ‘how many cousins should they have?’. We were robbed of our future, we had to start again without Naomi.”

“Road safety is one of the most important things that everyone should be taking notice of. We are pleased to be able to support Vision Zero.”

The strategy was launched at a road safety event at Lister Park in Bradford, along with a Vision Zero Pledge, whereby members of the public, and organisations, can sign and make a commitment to keep everyone safe on roads.

Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, said: “A devastating 1,450 people were killed or seriously injured on West Yorkshire roads in 2023.”

“Behind that statistic are real people with families and friends who cared about them and will have been deeply affected.”

“The only acceptable number of road casualties is zero. We will do everything in our power to create a society where everyone in West Yorkshire is safe and feels safe on our roads.”

Alison Lowe OBE, Chair of the West Yorkshire Vision Zero Board and Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, said: “My sister Debbie would have been 63 this year, had she not been killed by a speeding driver when she was just 3 years old.”

“The impact of death or serious injury is immediate, but the pain and devastation for families and the wider community can last for decades.”

“I am committed to ensuring we end the scourge of road death for all our communities across West Yorkshire.”

Chief Inspector James Farrar, head of West Yorkshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit, said: “Serious and fatal road traffic collisions have a devastating effect for all of those involved in them. They can end or significantly change a life in a single moment.”

“That’s why West Yorkshire Police is committed to improving the safety of our roads and to reducing the number of people who are killed and seriously injured on them every year.”

“We carry out daily enforcement on the road network across West Yorkshire and raise awareness of the risks and dangers posed by getting behind the wheel.”

“We won’t tolerate drivers who present a danger to other road users and are committed to working alongside our partners to ensure the West Yorkshire Vision Zero strategy makes our roads safer places for all who travel on them.”

To find out more about Vision Zero, and sign the pledge, please visit: www.visionzerowy.co.uk.

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