2014 saw an 11% increase in people killed or
seriously injured (KSI) on Kent's roads, a continued rise since 2012. This
increase is more than double the national average of 5%. Maidstone saw the
highest number of KSI at 74, and rural road deaths across Kent are reported to
be 29. Stuart Jeffery, Co-Chair of Kent Greens, has called for the speed limits
on rural roads to be reduced to 40mph.
Stuart commented: "With the second huge
rise in a row in people killed or seriously injured in Kent it is time for Kent
County Council to take definitive action rather than continuing to pander to
the road lobby. 658 people killed or seriously injured is 658 too many, and 29
people killed on rural roads is 29 too many. It is time to reduce the speed
limit on rural roads to 40mph.
"If 29 people had died in a plane crash
because the wings had fallen off, we would not be debating whether the bolts
should be checked regularly. There should be no debate on whether action to
reduce road deaths should be taken – we should simply take all the measures
needed.
"But sadly the UK seems to have developed
the same attitude to cars as the US has to guns, an attitude that is driven by
lobbyists and funded by government. With around £100 billion of subsidies to
road transport, plus the profits from manufacturing and fuel consumption, it is
no wonder that the lobbyists and government want more and faster traffic rather
than less.
"Yet over
20,000 people are killed or seriously injured in the UK each year and over
50,000 die from air pollution from traffic. In Kent 658 were killed or seriously
injured and there were an estimated 745 deaths from air pollution, mostly from
traffic.
"Cars are not a right or a necessity, just
as guns are not. Around 20% of households do not have a car and, while access
to services can be harder for them, they survive. Just maybe, if the government
made it easier and more economical to travel without a car by diverting some of
the road subsidies to methods of transport that don't kill thousands, life
might get easier and safer."
