00:00You can find them everywhere in London. They're super-sized cars known as SUVs, sports utility
00:06vehicles. But the issue is, are they making London's roads more dangerous? Well, the Mayor of London,
00:12Sir Sadiq Khan, has asked TfL to look into the issue and it could result in higher charges for
00:18SUV drivers in the capital. We've seen a massive increase in SUVs being driven in London. We've
00:25also, we also know if you're hit by a larger SUV, you're more likely to be killed than a normal
00:31car.
00:32A child is 70% more likely to be killed by an SUV than a normal car. A child in
00:38a nine,
00:39more than 200% more likely to be killed than a normal car. So I've asked TfL to do two
00:44things.
00:45One is to undertake a detailed analysis on the impact on road safety of larger SUVs. And secondly,
00:52what are the wider impacts, generally speaking, of these large SUVs, road space, parking spaces,
00:58and so forth. And so they'll come back with their report and look at what they see.
01:02We see about 9,000 road traffic collisions at the London Ambulance Service every year. So
01:07anything we can do to reduce the number of road traffic collisions is clearly important. Behind
01:11each one of those numbers is a patient, a person, of course, someone's, you know, relative son, daughter,
01:16brother, sister, often with lasting impact. So the launch of this campaign today is really important
01:24to us to reduce the volume of collisions we see in the capital.
01:29So we see a lot of drink driving and a lot of people driving under the influence of drugs.
01:35A lot of people are speeding and driving far too fast for the roads and the collisions.
01:40And sometimes it's young drivers driving cars that are far too powerful for them and they lose control.
01:47And other things that you can't control if a child is going to step out from behind a car chasing
01:52a
01:52football or something. But you can certainly not be going that fast that you can't stop.
01:57We see a lot of people jumping red lights as well, push bikes. We see quite a lot of collisions.
02:02These e-bikes are so fast you can't always judge how quick they're going and they can't always stop in
02:08time.
02:08So we see quite a lot of lower limb injuries, lower leg fractures from e-bikes or push bike related
02:15incidents.
02:16Now TfL faces a wider problem with road safety. Around 100 people a year are killed on London's roads
02:24and about three and a half thousand are seriously injured. The vast majority either pedestrian,
02:30cyclists or people on motorbikes or powered scooters.
02:34Now Sadiq Khan has set a target for Vision Zero road deaths. That means zero road deaths by 2041.
02:42It's only 15 years away. He still believes that this target is achievable.
02:48I think that there are road users who are increasingly causing danger to London's road users.
02:54I think that's a key priority within the Met and the Vision Zero footprint to get out there and actively
02:59target those individuals who do that. All too often we see casualties and we see those killed and
03:06seriously injured tragically on London's roads and obviously it's a Met commitment within the
03:10Vision Zero footprint alongside TfL to actively target those and reduce that number as fast and
03:16quickly as humanly possible.
03:18So I don't want to choose another number apart from zero. I've met people who've
03:22lost loved ones in crashes and it's it's a heartbreaking experience. Zero is the only goal
03:29that we can have and we know that when we do take action it works so we all need to
03:33double down
03:34around further action to improve safety on London's roads.
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