Call for 20mph speed limit to take pressure off NHS

A NATIONAL campaign for a 20mph speed limit on all urban roads was launched today – with the support of the Warrington-based 20’s Plenty for Us campaign.
The new campaign, supported by leading doctors, believes an emergency 20mph limit would reduce road accidents and reduce pressure on the NHS during the Covid-19 crisis.
Rod King, of Lymm, (pictured)  founder and campaign director of 20’s Plenty for Us, joined the doctors’ campaign, Lower the Baseline in calling on the Government to act now to reduce the speed limit to 20mph on all urban roads.
He said: “It is in the Government’s power and interest to change all 30mph limits to 20mph by making appropriate public announcements, without any need to change road signs. The precedent already exists to change national speed limits in an emergency. The Government changed national speed limits in the 1974 fuel crisis to save petrol and it must do this in the 2020 Covid-19 crisis to save lives. This move will match the mood of all of us to do everything possible for our NHS resources and staff.”
Mr King’s campaign has in recent years persuaded many local authorities, including Warrington, to introduce 20mph limits on residential roads.
Lower the Baseline says: “There has never been a more urgent time for Government action to protect the NHS from having to treat preventable road casualties, so keeping resources and beds free for Covid-19 patients. Setting a national 20mph limit is an affordable, practical and cost-effective step that the UK Government is able to take to help the NHS and support our doctors at this critical time.”
Dr Robert Hughes, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and 109 other doctors wrote in the Times recently: “Each month there are nearly 3,000 road traffic collision-related admissions to NHS hospitals in England alone.  Lowering and enforcing speed limits would reduce the frequency and severity of road traffic collisions.”
A British Medical Journal blog by population health expert Prof. Sunil Bhopal said : “First, we suggest an immediate reduction in motor vehicle speed limits. In England alone there are around 35,000 non-fatal admissions to hospital every year related to road traffic accidents; … In Canada, lowering the speed limit from 40km/h to 30km/h (20mph) was associated with a 28 per cent decrease in pedestrian-motor vehicle collisions and a 67 per cent decrease in major and fatal injuries.”
“We therefore suggest that the government urgently explore an emergency reduction of all national speed limits to 50mph, and to 20mph in urban areas.”