Articles

• 7th World Conference on Injury Prevention
  7th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, 6-9 June 2004, Vienna This major event held at the Austria Center Vienna was attended by some 1,500 delegates from all over the world. It was addressed by the Austrian Minister of Transport and Minister of Health and speakers representing the World Health Organisation and UNECE. A considerable part of the conference was devoted to road safety due to the attention given to the topi...more
• CIVIL JUSTICE REFORM
  CIVIL JUSTICE REFORM Summary of presentation by Colin Ettinger of Irwin Mitchell LIABILITY FOR PSYCHIATRIC ILLNESS Under the present law, the general position is: 1. A person who suffers reasonably foreseeable recognisable psychiatric illness, as a result of another person's death or injury, cannot recover damages for negligence unless they can satisfy three main requirements:- That they had a close tie of love and affection with the person kil...more
• Compensation for Victims of Crime
  Compensation for Victims of Crime RoadPeace have 12 years of experience of supporting and acting as advocates for the bereaved and injured victims of road crashes and their families and carers. Through our Helpline, local groups and contacts we have knowledge of literally thousands of cases. Three initial points: 1.We have found it very difficult to respond since the proposals are of a very general nature, whereas the questions are very detail...more
• Consultation on Reduction in Sentence for a Guilty Plea
  Consultation on Reduction in Sentence for a Guilty Plea RoadPeace have strong views on this issue based on literally hundreds of cases. We are grateful of the opportunity to respond but very concerned that we were not advised of the consultation so that we are replying today, as you requested, without adequate time to do more than make brief general comments, A to D and some recommendations of the issues to be considered by a court before givin...more
• The public health epidemic everyone wants to forget
  The public health epidemic everyone wants to forget BrigitteChaudhry 4.7.2001 It will be 105 years on 17 August since the death of Bridget Driscoll, the first person in Britain to be killed by a car. During those years, countless millions have lost their lives and been injured in crashes and every year, hundreds of thousands of new victims are added to those already bereaved and injured. Unlike other disasters, road carnage gets scant attenti...more
• The second gasoline war.
  The second gasoline war and how we can prevent the third By Ian Roberts, Professor of Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London WC1B 3DP, Tel/Fax: 020 7299 4748/4663 Email: [email protected] War in Iraq is inevitable. That there would be war was decided by North American planners in the mid 1920s. That it would be in Iraq was decided much more recently. The architects of this war were not militar...more
• How many people have been killed?
  How many people have been killed and injured in car crashes since the first death, of Bridget Driscoll, on 17 August 1896? 1 March 2005 This number cannot be precise since records were not kept from the start and because records are also inadequate. In his book Autogeddon, published in 1991, Heathcote Williams speaks of... "17 million dead and counting...more than twice the number in the death camps, eighteen times the count in Korea, sevent...more
• Minimum National Standards in Road Crash Investigations
  Minimum National Standards in Road Crash Investigations Presentation by Amy Aeron-Thomas at 21 April Parliamentary Lobby meeting Background Ten years ago, the Support for Families of Road Death Victims Report was published. It presented the findings of a two year Independent Working Group that included representatives of the police, victims, coroners, CPS, insurers, motoring organisations and emergency medicine. Recommendations were based on the...more
• Priorities in EU Road Safety 2002 - 2010.
  Resolution of the European Parliament Priorities in EU Road Safety 2002 - 2010 Summary Introduction "When building the Europe of the future, we need every individual's unique talents, and we cannot accept a situation where the lives and health of our youngsters are permanently at risk owing to everyday traffic. Improving traffic safety for children and young people is in keeping with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child." "Inadequate r...more
• Review of Code for Crown Prosecutors
  Review of Code for Crown Prosecutors Summary of RoadPeace's response, prepared by Zoe Stow, April 2004. 1.We would welcome the change to decisions by lawyers rather than police on charging but would be very concerned that this should not mean less prosecutions and/or an increase in undercharging ie using a lesser offence to ensure a guilty result, which is particularly likely in Road Traffic fatality cases, where the gulf between section 1 Causi...more
• The Impact of the Reduction of London's Traffic Police
  The Impact of the Reduction of London's Traffic Police It was with utter disbelief that I heard the Metropolitan Commissioner's recent announcement that the numbers of traffic police officers in the capital were going to be halved. Halved? Hadn't I just read in the GLA Green Group Report - "London's unsafe roads: the police and motorised street crime" that the number of traffic police in London has halved over the last 14 years? Halved again, wh...more
• Strategic approach by all relevant Government Departments
  Strategic approach by all relevant Government Departments Presentation by Brigitte Chaudhry at 21 April Lobby Meeting RoadPeace was pioneering in setting up its charity and helpline in early 1992 and pioneering with the launch of their justice campaign in 1998 and in it their call for a strategic/partnership approach between related government departments. Quote: "RoadPeace demands a unified government strategy to tackle this major public health...more
• Is the law on traffic offences appropriate?
  Is the law on traffic offences appropriate? Countless enquiries, studies, polls and case histories have made it evident that the law in respect of road death and injury is not only inappropriate, but also breaches several Human Rights' articles, and that a law change is imperative. A 40,000 signature petition calling for an end to treating - in law - road death and injury as a mere by-product of a piece of driving instead of the killing or maimi...more
• Transport Briefing.
  Transport Briefing RoadPeace, the national charity for road traffic victims, was set up in February 1992 in response to the urgent need for a national organisation to represent and support bereaved and injured road traffic victims. Never before have road traffic victims had a body to act as their advocate. RoadPeace is the national voice for victims of all types of road offences. It works at raising awareness of the need to reduce danger at sour...more
• World's first road death
  World's first road death The victim On August 17, 1896, Bridget Driscoll, became the first road fatality in the world. She was a 44year old mother with two children who had come to London with her teenage daughter and a friend to watch a dancing display. The crash While the driver was reported to be doing 4 mph, witnesses described her at being hit by a car travelling at "tremendous speed". The crash occurred on a terrace in the grounds of ...more