Charity calls for 20mph speed limits around schools to help keep children safe

According to new research published by Brake, parents and carers across the country say they do not walk their children to school every day, because roads are too busy and cars go too fast.

Compounding this, nearly two-thirds of parents say their school doesn’t have 20mph speed limits on all surrounding roads.

Latest Department for Transport figures show that 850 children under the age of 16 were killed or injured on East Midlands roads in 2021; an average taken from the last five years gives a figure of 939.

In Nottinghamshire, 142 children under 16-years-old were killed, seriously injured and slightly injured, in road crashes in 2021.

Lucy Straker, Brake campaigns manager, said: “We speak to lots of schools where teachers are doing everything they can to make the roads near their school safe, but ultimately they need support from their local council and decision-makers. Why do we have to wait until a child is killed before we act?

“We know excess speed is a factor in about a quarter of fatal crashes and the physics is pretty straightforward, the faster a vehicle is travelling, the harder it hits and the greater the impact.

“We’re calling for roads around every school to have 20mph speed limits, so children and their families can travel safely to and from school every day.”