The last 12 months have seen tens of thousands of young people in West Yorkshire receive additional education, more dangerous drivers than ever before brought to justice and new support for victims.
These are just some of the achievements a year on from major organisations across the region uniting to end all road death and serious injury by 2040 through the West Yorkshire Vision Zero Strategy.
The Vision Zero Strategy focuses on the safe system approach - safe roads, behaviours, speeds, vehicles and an effective post-collision response.
Under each of these themes sit objectives for the short and longer term, but at the strategy’s heart is the message that everyone has a responsibility to keep people safe on our roads, and we must all work together to create the lasting change needed.
Emergency services, local authorities, National Highways, victim support services and road safety campaigners are united behind the strategy.
Highlights from the strategy’s first year include:
- A new Independent Road Victim Advocate service being launched to support victims.
- 13,000 children across 83 schools in the region are part of an innovative educational project.
- 7,500 dangerous drivers were brought to justice with help from members of the public through Op Snap.
- From April 2024 to March 2025 police officers on patrol in West Yorkshire communities issued 39,310 fixed penalty tickets for traffic offences, and safety cameras detected over 279,000 speed and red-light offences.
- Urging the Government to introduce lifesaving Graduated Driving Licences, backed by the families of victims of road death.
- Over 750 child car seats being assessed across 25 events, with a new set of free check events currently running.
In 2023 50 people were killed and 1400 were seriously injured on West Yorkshire’s roads. Provisional figures for 2024 show 40 people were killed and 1277 were seriously injured, whilst there is much more to do, the reduction is positive.
Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, said: “A year ago we launched West Yorkshire Vision Zero, because the only acceptable number of road casualties is zero.
“Behind the statistics are real people with families and friends who are all deeply affected by each and every road death and serious injury.
“Our first year has seen some fantastic work, but there’s still a long way to go and we’re committed to building on this to keep everyone safe in our region.”
Image credit: iStock
Video Credit: West Yorkshire Vision Zero
