Community Speedwatch Day of Action in rural Staffordshire communities

Staffordshire Police officers joined  community speed watch volunteers as part of a rural county road focus,

Transcript

00:00We're going out today to do some work with our partners in the community Speedwatch,

00:07which are volunteers across various villages in the rural areas of the county. These volunteers

00:15come together on a regular basis, normally weekly, where they will use speed detection devices to

00:23record speeding offences through the areas that they live. We've invested quite heavily in road

00:29safety over the last 12 months, where we've increased the side of the road crime team and the road harm team.

00:36We need to be working harder to reduce these speeds, you know there's children in these villages

00:41and towns in the local area, we've got to make sure that they're safe walking along the pavements,

00:46along with cyclists, horse riders and everybody else using the road network. Working with young

00:52children from a young age through the school years into high school to the point of when they're

00:57starting to learn to drive, to share the impacts of speed and the devastation that it can cause if

01:03they don't stick to the speed limits. I mean I've been to 22 fatal collisions where multiple people

01:08have lost their lives on Staffordshire's roads. The impact's massive, the impact to the officers having

01:14to investigate it, to deal with what's happened and more importantly the families, you know. To lose a

01:21loved one on the road is tragic, you know. Everybody that goes out to work or socially on a daily basis

01:27should come home safely and the fact that they're not and that's still happening on Staffordshire's

01:33roads is not acceptable and we've got to work really hard to try and reduce those numbers.