Police commissioners seek public views on road safety

 Police and Crime Commissioners are urging people to take 60 seconds to influence Government policy on roads policing.

Alison Hernandez, the national PCC lead on road safety, has asked the other 41 commissioners in England and Wales to support and promote a survey so results can be fed into a Department for Transport Call for Evidence.

She is hoping for a significant response to what is believed to be the first national poll co-ordinated by PCCs.

“It is clear that the number of people killed and seriously injured (KSIs) on our roads is unacceptable and needs drastically reducing,” she said.

“PCCs have a strong voice in local communities and are eager to understand the public’s views around road safety and policing our roads.

“This survey will allow PCCs to advocate the strength of public feeling to make our roads safer and, I hope, give the Government the evidence it needs to act.”

Commissioner Hernandez, the commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, also believes that more enforcement on the roads could have a knock-on effect on other criminality.

“Roads policing officers play an essential role too in tackling criminality on our roads including drug and weapons smuggling, people trafficking, county lines and other organised criminality,” she said.

“This week in Devon and Cornwall roads police officers discovered a drugs haul after stopping a driver who was speeding at 120mph and we saw on the Call the Cops series how they had prevented people smugglers trading in human misery by apprehending them on the M5.”

The poll, which can be found here, is open until 30 September 2020.

Mick HARRISON, Community Engagement Worker, Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly