GRAPHIC images of injured children are being used to drive home a road safety message council chiefs hope will save lives.
Posters featuring the injured face of a child have been designed in a bid to back the controversial move towards 20mph speed limits throughout Lancashire.
The bold images highlight research showing a person hit at 30mph is seven times more likely to die than a person hit at 20mph.
County Council leader, Coun Geoff Driver said: “The images used in the campaign are hard-hitting because our research suggests they will be an effective way of encouraging drivers to recognise the serious consequences the 20mph areas are designed to guard against.”
The launch comes as 20mph signs have now been installed on more than half of residential roads across the county as part of Lancashire County Council’s programme to establish 20mph as the new limit on all residential roads and outside schools by the end of 2013.
Lancashire Police is supporting the campaign by highlighting the link between speeding and accidents which result in death or injury, and the knock-on impact upon families.
PC Jason Moore, a police family liaison officer said: “My most difficult task is having to meet a family and deliver the most devastating news imaginable – that their child has died.
“Many road accidents take place on residential roads and reducing speeds in these areas could make a real difference to the outcome for the hundreds of families who are affected by injuries and deaths each year.”
A senior paramedic from the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust advised the council on the type of injuries a child could expect to suffer if knocked down by a car at 20mph, or higher speed.
Ian Walmsley, from NWAS, said: “There is nothing more harrowing than turning up to a scene where a child has been killed and you know that by reducing the speed by just 10mph could have saved their life. ”
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