Birmingham road safety campaigners call for emergency action to save lives after four deaths in collisions

A community-based road safety campaign group in Birmingham have called on West Midlands Police for a detailed plan for change on the roads of the city. The movement for safer roads has gained momentum following several tragic road collisions in the recent weeks in Birmingham.

A statement from the community organisation Better Streets for Birmingham comes after West Midlands Police, The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, Birmingham City Council, Director of Transport for West Midlands Cycling and Walking Commissioner shared a joint statement on Sunday (June 18).

The road safety campaigners, who held a demonstration supported by over 200 people in Kings Heath, say the police, Mayor and council should declare the situation an emergency after four people have been killed and four others suffered serious injury in road collisions in th city..

In the joint statement, Chief Inspector Rebecca Barnsley, from the Central Motorway Policing Group, said: “Alongside our partners we will continue to listen to the community, target ‘hotspot’ areas and focus on increasing the safety of all road users across the West Midlands.

“We regularly conduct speeding operations and work with our local communities and volunteers with speedwatch operations in areas where we’ve been told that speeding is a concern. Local authorities have brought in car cruising injunctions across Birmingham and the Black Country which we police and conduct regular operations.

“However, not all collisions involve speeding drivers and we conduct regular traffic operations that target drivers who use the roads whilst under the influence of alcohol or drugs.”

What Birmingham City Council said

Councillor Liz Clements, cabinet member for transport at Birmingham City Council, said: “We’ve all been saddened by the recent terrible incidents on our roads involving cyclists and pedestrians and our thoughts are with families and friends of those affected. If we want our vision of better road safety to be a reality we can all agree that we can’t wait to make any necessary infrastructure changes.

“So, in order to do this quickly we must transform our existing public spaces so they prioritise people rather than vehicles - that is how we can achieve a change in behaviour. For far too long we have given priority to cars and other motor vehicles and this must change; we have set out in our transport plan how we want Birmingham to be a place to live and be, not drive and park.

“We want to see speed reduction from 40 to 30 mph on arterial roads in our inner city areas worst affected by dangerous driving and speeding and alongside police colleagues we will have a zero tolerance approach to enforcement. We will also pilot increased ‘green times’ for active travel modes at a number of signal controlled junctions and crossings giving greater priority to non-motor vehicles. If we work together to prioritise people we can do this.”

The joint statement was issued after Better Streets for Birmingham had organised a huge demonstration attended by hundreds of people in Kings Heath on Sunday (June 18) following a collision involving a young boy and a woman on Kings Heath High Street

Better Streets for Birmingham’s full statement

Better Streets responded to the statement saying: “Better Streets for Birmingham welcomes the fact that our demonstration today on Sunday 18 June 2023 in Kings Heath, Birmingham has prompted West Midlands Police, Birmingham City Council and Transport for West Midlands to come together to discuss the epidemic of dangerous driving on our roads.

“The fact that our public bodies have made this statement, acknowledges they recognise the strength and depth of anger and frustration among the people of Birmingham who witness dangerous and aggressive driving on our roads every day.

“We are grateful for West Midlands Police’s swift and immediate response to the collision last Thursday involving two people including a child in Kings Heath. But this level of police activity came too late as both victims remain seriously injured in hospital.

“We call for our police force to tackle the dangerous and aggressive behaviour on our roads that we see on a day-to-day basis, across all of Birmingham and the wider region’s neighbourhoods. We need prevention, not reaction.

“We do not feel the Police’s statement goes far enough as it offers no action for change. Especially in light of the fact that eight people’s lives have been seriously changed or ended in just four weeks. Driving offences continue to be commonplace, putting all road users at risk.

“We call on the police to create a detailed plan for a step change in enforcement and behaviour change. We will write to the police next week with actions we would like to see as part of this plan, for example, improved third-party reporting and a more robust local roads policing approach, supported by Safer Neighbourhood Teams.

“We call on Birmingham City Council, Transport for West Midlands and West Midlands Police to urgently hold a press conference to declare this endemic road violence an emergency in our city. We continue to have constructive conversations with Birmingham City Council and the Mayor of the West Midlands. But we are painfully aware that conversations are not enough. The people of Birmingham need action.”