Residents demand Safe Streets in Park Hill and Walkley

This was a fun family-friendly dual protest to demand pedestrian lights at the traffic lights at Duke Street crossing, safe streets in Walkley and Safe Streets everywhere! See https://safestreetsnow.co.uk/ for more details.

Here are some photos from the Walkley protest thanks to Jeremy Abraham’s.

The video includes the Zebra bravely crossing the roads (but doesn’t include the Mission Impossible soundtrack she did this to for copyright reasons!) Speeches from Cllr Brian Holmshaw (Green Party), Elle Dodd (Labour Party Candidate for Manor Castle) and Ruth Flagg Abbey (Green Party Candidate for Manor Castle) are included. It is pleasing that both Labour and the Greens supported this action. Hopefully, they will now work together to make sure this junction is made safe as soon as possible for pedestrians, cyclists and all road users. We held a minute’s silence for everyone killed by road violence this year. The children enjoyed chalking a zebra crossing on the road on the few occasions it was possible to attempt this! I didn’t get a video of my speech, so here it is.

I’m Graham Wroe. a local resident, blogger for TelltheTruthSheffield.org and writer for the Star and Telegraph. 

Here we are at the most dangerous crossing for pedestrians in Sheffield!

Give me a shout if you have had a near miss at this junction.

What do we want? Safe crossing!

When do we want it? Now!

I have been campaigning for over 20 years for pedestrian lights here. I am quite certain that if this junction was in a more prosperous part of the city it would have been improved long ago. This junction is extremely dangerous to cross as there are no pedestrian lights and drivers don’t expect to encounter pedestrians when they have a green light. It is impossible to see all oncoming traffic when you are crossing. The Council think it is a low priority due to accident data, but the reality is pedestrians avoid the junction rather than putting their lives at risk.

What do we want? Safe crossing!

When do we want it? Now!

But it is not just this junction we want to improve. 

Across the UK, someone is killed or seriously injured on our roads every 16 minutes. These sudden and unexpected tragedies leave in their wake ruined lives, grieving families and whole communities torn apart by what they have witnessed. They create a climate of fear which limits children’s play and makes the acts of walking, wheeling and scooting a source of anxiety rather than joy.

In 2022 1711 people were killed on our roads. That’s more than 4 people every day, or nearly 18 Hillsborough disasters every year. We can’t go on like this. 

Recently in our Norfolk Park neighbourhood, on two separate occasions, cars have ended up on their side in crashes that fortunately didn’t involve others. But also as a pedestrian I have recently experienced unattentive drivers failing to stop at pedestrian crossings when the green man was showing and I had already started crossing. Both made me recall the horrific crash when my daughter’s friend’s child was killed crossing a pedestrian crossing. 

So this week I kept a note of the reports in the Star about road collisions.

Thursday April 11th

Driver hunted after car crashed in pursuit. The driver of stolen Suzuki Swift crashed into a VW Golf at Retford Road. VW driver suffered minor injuries.

Friday April 12th 

77-year-old woman injured in crash with life-changing injuries. One of 5 patients was involved in a serious crash on Occupation Lane, Hackenthorpe.

10-year-old boy was seriously injured after a collision. He was hit by a white Audi on Broom Road, Herringthorpe

Sat April 13th

Court case concerning Chris Marriott, who died after being hit by a car after he stopped to assist someone unconscious in the street in Burngreave.

Mon April 15th

Drone footage shows the aftermath of the M1 smash. A single-vehicle collision near J36.

2 52a buses going in opposite directions crashed causing gridlock on West Street. Roads and trams were both blocked

7 seriously hurt in a minibus crash on A1 near Darrington. The minibus carrying football fans overturned. 3 vehicles were involved.

Police chase involved the driver of a stolen Range Rover travelling at 80mph in a 30mph area, reversing down 60 mph roads and driving the wrong way around a roundabout before crashing at Parkgate, Rotherham

Tue-no paper

Wed April 17th 

Electric bus stolen in Sheffield Interchange and driven to Killamarsh and crashed into another vehicle

Court case. Drunk driver jailed for 2 years 8 months and given a 10-year driving ban. He caused a 3 car crash at Bawtry Rd Rotherham causing serious injuries. He was 4 times over the legal alcohol limit.

Why do we let this death and destruction continue every day on our streets? What can we do to stop it? 

Safe Streets Now has a clear list of demands for action from our Government, Council, Police and Prosecuting Services. Shout YES if you agree with them!  

• We campaign to minimise road danger through improved driver and vehicle regulation in conjunction with people-centred design of our public spaces.
• We demand that within the next parliament, the government:
  • Makes 20mph the default speed limit in built up areas
  • Implements a nationwide ban on pavement parking
  • Allocates 10% of highway spending to high quality infrastructure for walking, wheeling and cycling.
• We demand that the sentencing council
  • Review its recommendations on driving bans for driving offences such that
    • Lifetime bans are the automatic dispensation for the worst offences
    • Longer bans are mandatory for less serious offences or near misses
• We demand that the CPS/police services
  • Impose interim driving bans as bail conditions for people arrested for or charged with causing death or serious injury by dangerous, intoxicated or careless driving.
• We demand that every local authority
  • Establishes ‘school streets’ outside every viable primary school by 2030
  • Focus their Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIP) and delivery on safe pedestrian and cycle routes to all primary and secondary schools
  • Use existing road pricing powers (with exceptions for disabled people, low-income workers etc) to reduce excess driving and raise money for local street improvements

If you do nothing else today please go to the Safe Streets Now website and sign up so you will be informed of any future events. Also ‘ join our Whats App group so you can keep in touch. Even better, write to your Councillors and demand action for Safe Streets Now!