Celebrating our Road Safety Heroes

The theme of this year's campaign, promoted by road safety charity BRAKE, is 'Road Safety Heroes' to thank and celebrate the millions of people across the UK who take action to keep our roads safe.

Residents, businesses and organisations are encouraged to nominate the crossing patrol officers, road safety campaigners, engineers or anyone who helps to keep us safe on the roads.

You can thank your own personal road safety heroes by visiting https://www.brake.org.uk/road-safety-week/our-road-safety-heroes and adding them to Brake's 'heroes hall of fame'.

Officers from Sunderland City Council's Road Safety team are carrying out a programme of activities with schools across the city, to help children learn from a young age about the importance of using roads safely.  This will include a visit from the School Crossing Patrol service who have continued to work during the COVID-19 pandemic to assist with the safe movement of pupils and their parents or carers.

Deputy Leader of Sunderland City Council and Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, Councillor Claire Rowntree said: "Road safety and responsible driving are a high priority all year round, but Road Safety Week as an opportunity to think about the people who keep us safe. 

"Sunderland City Council's Road Safety team works all year round to achieve a reduction in road traffic casualties on the road network throughout Sunderland through a range of measures including road safety schemes, educational programmes, training courses and road safety campaigns."

Jason Wakeford, Head of Campaigns at Brake, said: "Road Safety Week is the UK's biggest annual road safety campaign and is a great opportunity to speak up for road safety. This year everyone can acknowledge and celebrate the heroic efforts of people working to save lives on roads across the country - and recognise that we can all be road safety heroes by using roads safely and taking actions for road safety in our families, schools, communities and where we work.

"We would urge everyone to visit the Road Safety Week website for loads of ways to take part in the campaign all this week."

Throughout Road Safety Week, Sunderland City Council will be engaging with a number of schools across Sunderland to help promote safe use of the highway and alternative ways of travel.  This is part of a wider message to discourage pavement parking near the school gates.

Northumbria Police are to undertake targeted speed enforcement in areas in the Coalfields and Washington areas, which have been identified as areas of concern.  This is in response to concerns raised by residents and councillors to address issues with some motorists ignoring speed limits on various roads across Sunderland.