Plan to cut road deaths to zero across West Yorkshire by 2040 launched by Mayor Tracy Brabin

The West Yorkshire Vision Zero Strategy is an innovative development in how road safety will be improved and lives saved.

It will focus on the safe system approach - safe roads, behaviours, speeds, vehicles and an effective post collision response.

Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, said: “A devastating 1,450 people were killed or seriously injured on West Yorkshire roads in 2023.

“Behind that statistic are real people with families and friends who cared about them and will have been deeply affected.

“The only acceptable number of road casualties is zero. We will do everything in our power to create a society where everyone in West Yorkshire is safe and feels safe on our roads.”

Under each of theme sit objectives for the short and longer term but at the strategy’s heart is the message that everyone has a responsibility to keep people safe.

Emergency services, local authorities, National Highways, victim support services and road safety campaigners are all backing the strategy.

Calderdale couple, Bev and Steve Gough, whose daughter, Naomi, 19, tragically lost her life due to a road traffic collision are also backing the campaign.

Speaking on what happened to Naomi, they said: "It's been a nightmare since. You live a life sentence and it’s always like the horrors of that night were only yesterday.

"Naomi had plans, she wanted to get married and have children. We should have more grandchildren. Our grandchildren, who never met Naomi ask ‘how many cousins should they have?’. We were robbed of our future, we had to start again without Naomi.”

The strategy was launched today at a road safety event at Lister Park in Bradford, along with a Vision Zero Pledge, whereby members of the public, and organisations, can sign and make a commitment to keep everyone safe on West Yorkshire’s roads.

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Alison Lowe, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, said: “My sister Debbie would have been 63 this year, had she not been killed by a speeding driver when she was just 3 years old.

“The impact of death or serious injury is immediate, but the pain and devastation for families and the wider community can last for decades.

“I am committed to ensuring we end the scourge of road death for all our communities across West Yorkshire.”