Introduce 20mph speed limit on residential roads to stop accidents during crisis

EVERYONE I speak to is very grateful to our NHS and frontline staff working so hard in extremely difficult circumstances.

It’s clear that, nationally, our hospitals are under pressure from huge increases in admissions, combined with some staff off sick or isolating due to the virus.

There are 3,000 admissions per month in England as a result of road traffic casualties.

Even with non-essential traffic banned, I’ve witnessed many vehicles moving too fast, especially when social distancing means people are stepping off pavements to give others space.

Nationally and internationally, it is best practice to adopt 20mph speed limits where pedestrians and cyclists mix with motor traffic. England signed the ‘Stockholm Declaration’ for this in February.

A Canadian study found reducing speed limits to 20mph associated with a 67 per cent reduction in major and fatal injuries. An emergency measure of a 20mph speed limit has been estimated to save at least 17 hospital admissions in Leeds, for instance, in the next three months.

Please protect us all and free up hospital beds by making 20mph the normal speed limit here on every road in a built up area during this emergency.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well. Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected].

Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available. If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor