City leaders have come together to tackle the dangers on our roads, with a mission to create an environment where no one is killed or serious injured.

A joint statement has been issued by the Mayor of the West Midlands, Transport for West Midlands, West Midlands Police, the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, Birmingham City Council, and the Mayor's Walking and Cycling Commissioner. It reads:

"In the West Midlands we are working towards an environment where no-one is killed or seriously injured on our roads. This is a challenging but imperative goal that can only be achieved through relentless partnership working. In recent weeks, several unacceptable acts of road violence have led to needless deaths and serious injuries on our roads.

"The outrage felt by communities is clear and justified. Partners from across the region have been working around the clock to reflect on our approach and ensure we are doing all we can to tackle the kind of dangerous behaviour that blights our communities.

“This includes a series of Gold Command meetings chaired by Assistant Chief Constable Mike O’Hara as part of the immediate response involving partners and an intelligence-led approach to enforcement.

On Tuesday 18th July, the Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, chaired a meeting with partners including Craig Guildford, Chief Constable of West Midlands Police; Cllr Liz Clements, cabinet member for transport at Birmingham City Council and Simon Foster, the Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands.

In this meeting, it was agreed that:

• A new Operation Triton, led by Police and supported by partners, will focus on relentless enforcement of the rules of the road through intelligence-led operations and hot spot enforcement.
• A second team on the West Midlands Police Road Harm Prevention Team will bolster efforts to enforce against people who endanger vulnerable road users. In addition, two new road crime teams will work day and night to target the most dangerous of drivers.
• Transport for West Midlands will launch a new high-profile road safety campaign supported and co-funded by each partner.
• West Midlands Police will grow capacity for third party reporting, giving communities power to submit dash cam and helmet cam footage to support Police in tackling anti-social driving in their areas.
• Birmingham City Council will consult on reducing speed limits on main roads in the city to 30mph from 40mph and has commenced a pilot scheme to reprogram crossings to make them more responsive to pedestrians and give them longer times to cross.
• West Midlands Police will equip and upskill local policing teams to tackle road safety in their communities, with a particular focus on anti-social driving and speeding.
• The Police and Crime Commissioner will allocate a portion of the upcoming Safer Streets 5 funding to be used to tackle anti-social use of roads.
• Partners are working together to increase the number of average speed cameras across the network to tackle speeding on our most dangerous roads.
• Overall, West Midlands Police will work towards a significant increase in speed enforcement from 2024 in order that compliance with speed limits improves.
• Birmingham City Council will accelerate their A45 active travel scheme with spades in the ground for the first phase by this winter. In September, TfWM will launch a revised Road Safety Strategy with the goal of a 50% reduction in the number of people killed and seriously injured on our road network by the end of 2030; this is a pathway to our ultimate target of Vision Zero.
• TfWM’s and Birmingham’s new Road Safety strategies, due this winter, will be aligned to tackle this together.

These activities will complement the medium and long-term work in developing and delivering schemes which support active travel and improve the safety of vulnerable road users, in line with stated aims in the TfWM Local Transport Plan and the city council’s Birmingham Transport Plan.

In response, The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has hailed plans for tackling road casualties and reckless driving that West Midlands Mayor, laid out today, but warns more must be done to effectively remedy the situation.

The Birmingham-based accident prevention charity is deeply concerned with the recent spate of fatalities and irresponsible driving that have made the headlines recently, with yesterday seeing reports of an e-bike rider killed in a collision with a driver in the city’s Yardley area, as well as a fatal crash in the Jewellery Quarter which saw a man and a woman arrested for dangerous driving. David Walker, Head of Road and Leisure Safety at RoSPA, said:

“We welcome the announcement of the Mayor, pledging to reduce the current spike in violent road incidents in the Birmingham area by the focus on education and enforcement, but as a accident prevention charity, there are still concerns we would like to see addressed.

"Having previously written to the Mayor about our concerns, his statement today made no mention of infrastructure changes required and without the expedition of these projects on Birmingham's roads, the current proposals will only partially address the city's road troubles.

"We welcome some of the previous packages of work, however, these infrastructure changes are critical to achieving the vision of a safer Birmingham and are the measures that will protect everyone, all the time, as we have seen in other world-leading cities.

"Given that exceeding the speed limit and traveling at an inappropriate speed contributes to 27 per cent of fatal collisions, we welcome the commitment to consult on reducing speed limits from 40mph to 30mph. However, as a number of these incidents have taken place on 30mph roads, a wider review of speed limits is needed.

“We ask Andy Street and the decision-makers within West Midlands Combined Authority to listen to our concerns, announce their intention to speed-up the rollout of safer infrastructure, and faithfully commit to their mission to bring down the road casualty rate in the second city.”