The Cleveland Strategic Road Safety Partnership will be carrying out a targeted programme of speed enforcement during the 6th UN Global Road Safety Week, which runs from Monday, May 17 to Sunday, May 23.
Held every few years since it was first launched in 2007, UN Global Road Safety Week highlights the need for a reduction in vehicle speeds on roads in urban areas in order to create safe, healthy, green and liveable towns and cities.
This year's events will also launch the UN's Decade of Action for Road Safety, which runs until 2030.
Lower vehicle speeds in urban areas have a number of benefits. As well as reducing the potential for collisions to occur, particularly those involving vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists, lower speeds also mean less noise, less harmful emissions and, just as importantly, an improved quality of life for local residents.
In recognition of these benefits, the Cleveland Strategic Road Safety Partnership - which comprises Cleveland Police, the Cleveland Police & Crime Commissioner, Cleveland Fire Brigade, the four Local Councils in the Cleveland area and Highways England - will be targeting speeding drivers on roads in Middlesbrough, where a Borough-wide programme of 20 mph speed limits on residential streets was introduced between 2012 and 2013.
Mobile speed enforcement cameras will be deployed throughout the week on roads across the town where speeding vehicles have been identified as a concern by local residents and community representatives.
Announcing the week of action, Andy Corcoran, Chair of the Strategic Partnership, said: "All of the partner organisations are fully committed to tackling excessive vehicle speeds on roads across the Cleveland area, which is why the Partnership has made speed enforcement its number one priority in 2021.
"UN Global Road Safety Week highlights the many benefits that lower vehicle speeds help to deliver, not only through a reduction in the number of collisions and injuries on our roads but also from an environmental, health and wider quality of life perspective.
"No one wants to live next to a race track, which is why the speed limit on most of the roads in our towns and villages is set at 30 mph or lower.
"The vast majority of drivers across Cleveland do their bit every time they get behind the wheel by travelling at an appropriate speed.
"The targeted week of enforcement activity is aimed at the small minority of inconsiderate drivers who put themselves and other road users at risk by deliberately choosing not to comply with the speed limit."
