Sandwell Council’s Road Safety team has helped reduce accidents in the borough by 16% from 2017 to 2019. There was a reduction in casualties in all areas and significantly the number of child accident/casualties was reduced by 30%. 

 As part of the team’s work they deliver assemblies at schools across in the borough including at Crocketts Community Primary School  where staff and students are successfully highlighting the importance of road safety outside their school following concerns that some parents and children were not using the zebra crossing when crossing Coopers Lane, Smethwick.
 
Sandwell Council’s Road Safety team delivered assemblies to the whole school to raise awareness of distractions when crossing the road and promote the correct use of pedestrian crossings. They also launched a competition for the children to create designs that have been transformed into  two banners to be placed on the school railings. It is hoped that these fantastic banners will have a positive impact on road safety in the local area.
 
The winners of the competition were:
 

• Jasmine, who created Zebby, a multi coloured zebra who encourages everyone to always use the zebra crossing even if it means walking a little further down the road to do so 
• Hozar and Sukhreet, who reminded us to always avoid using mobile phones and to Stop, Look, Listen and Think when crossing the road.

 
Lynne Paino, Head Teacher at Crocketts Community Primary School said
 
“The children are always keen to learn about road safety and it has been great to know that they have gone home and promoted road safety to their families.

"The roads around all schools can be very dangerous places at the beginning and end of the school day so the more we can educate our children to be safe the better."

A quarter of Sandwell’s road network now has 20mph zones and there has been an increase  in traffic calming measures thanks to the Council’s evidence-based Road Plan. In addition, Sandwell Council is listening to local communities and has allocated a further £50k of investment to fund community requests for traffic calming measures where the community feels they are needed when they don’t quite meet the usual benchmarks.