Petition vows to end road carnage

Dec 12 2008 by Jeff Holmes, Paisley Daily Express

AN award-winning firm are ready to slam the brakes on road deaths, with a welcome online petition.

Kidds Distribution, of Renfrew Road, is hoping to collect 10,000 signatures, and will present them to both the Scottish and British governments.

Every day, thousands of people are seriously injured in road crashes across the UK – and Renfrewshire doesn’t escape the carnage.

But now Kidds is determined to help reduce these damning statistics by initiating a sea change in the way road users view safety, and have proposed a number of pro-active methods in which this can be achieved. They include:

lCampaigning against sentences handed out by the justice system to convicted drink drivers.

lAn end to alcohol being on sale in service/filling stations.

lChanging the colour of road markings at or near schools to a more distinctive red.

lMaking sure that anyone banned from driving should have to re-sit their test when the ban expires.

lTotal elimination of the use of mobile phones from within vehicles – including hands free units.

lA call to the car industry as a whole to take more of a moral and social responsibility in promoting road safety.

lRolling road safety adverts to be displayed in pubs, clubs (after 7pm) and in car showrooms.

A spokesman for Kidds said: “We would like to bring about a change to the carnage that road deaths bring to thousands of families across the UK.

“We have set a signature goal of 10,000 for our petition and already folk are queuing up to leave their names and messages online.”

The Paisley firm recently won a Fleet Safety Forum award for excellence and outstanding commitment to road safety.

By re-branding its vehicles to include road safety livery, it aims to keep the topic at the forefront of the minds of employees and other road users.

More than 3,000 people are killed on UK roads each year and that means that each day nine police officers visit nine families to break the devastating news that a loved one has suffered a sudden, violent death.

To find out more log on to www.kdspetition.co.uk