Press Release - Oxford Street Horse-drawn Funeral Protest and Marble Arch Mega Die-In

Press Release Header with logoOxford Street - Horse-drawn Funeral Protest
and
Marble Arch Mega Die-In
For Cycling/Pedestrian Safety

 

* For immediate release *

National Funeral for the Unknown Victim of Traffic Violence

When: Saturday November 15th, 2014 from noon.
Where: Oxford Street/Marble Arch, London
What:
  1. Oxford Street: A symbolic funeral protest led by a horse-drawn hearse containing a coffin representing all the unknown victims who have lost or had their lives destroyed on Britain’s roads.
  2. Marble Arch: Mega Die-In around the coffin of the unknown victim and rally.

 

Cycling, Pedestrian, Climate Change and Medical Staff grassroots activists who are part of the Stop Killing Cyclists and Stop The Killing Coalition* are organising the first ever massive peaceful, dignified National Funeral of the Unknown Victim of Traffic Violence.

It will go from Bedford Square along Oxford Street to Marble Arch., to symbolically mark all the unknown victims who have lost or had their lives destroyed on Britain’s roads including:

  • Traffic Crash Violence
  • Death from traffic air-pollution
  • Obesity related deaths through fear of walking or cycling
  • The millions dying worldwide as a result of climate change.

Please see our moving Launch Videos for the National Funeral on YouTube at: http://goo.gl/v3KRtz and http://goo.gl/OEG7iM

The Facebook page for the event is at http://goo.gl/DX2l13 where we welcome people letting us know they wish to attend this dignified protest.

Stop the Killing Co-organiser Fred Smith said:

“The UK’s road network is not fit for purpose. We need to end the culture of acceptance which surrounds traffic-violence and unite road users of all kinds from across the country to create positive human-friendly roads and public-spaces in Britain.”

Stop Killing Cyclists Co-organiser Donnachadh McCarthy also said:

“The staggering number of deaths and injuries resulting from motorised traffic over the last decade stands at 2,400,000 people!

This horrifically equates to the combined populations of Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester and Cardiff!!

Hundreds of thousands more are suffering life-impairing terrible diseases.

This symbolic protest funeral and mega die-in is an urgent clarion call to end this carnage and environmental destruction.”

The National Funeral Protest will place 10 Demands calling for urgent action from local and national government – see details below.

End.

*Stop the Killing Coalition includes: Westminster Living Streets, Campaign Against Climate Change, Stop Killing Cyclists, London Green Party, Safer Oxford Street Campaign, The Ecologist Magazine, Permaculture Magazine.

 


Stop Killing Cyclists - logo with website in redRelease Dated: 5 November 2014
Press Contact: Donnachadh McCarthy
Telephone: 07947 8842 99

Note to editors:

1. Stop Killing Cyclists is the direct action protest group set up after last November’s terrible spate of cyclist killings in London. They arranged the mass Die-In at TfL HQ where 1,500 cyclists laid down in the road in protest at lack of safety investment in London.

2. Stop The Killing is the associated group of pedestrian, cycling and environmental grass-root activists who want to eliminate Traffic Violence which includes Westminster Living Streets, Stop Killing Cyclists and the Campaign Against Climate Change.

3. Some of the statistics which the National Funeral wishes to highlight:

UK Cyclists Killed: 1,233 (DoT)
UK Pedestrians Killed: 5,787 (DoT)
UK Motorists Killed: 19,293 (DoT)
UK Patients Killed by Transport Pollution: 50,000 (NHS)
UK residents killed through physical inactivity due to lack of cycling infrastructure (estimated): 400,000 (Prof. Garfield UCL)
Ten Year Total Killings: 476,313

Thus the number of people whose deaths can be attributed to traffic violence over the last decade is the equivalent of the population of Manchester!

Total Cyclists killed seriously injured or injured: 198,000
Total Pedestrians killed, seriously injured or injured: 298,300
Total Motorists killed, seriously injured or injured: 1,913,502
Total killed, seriously injured or injured on UK Roads: 2, 409,802

This is the equivalent of the entire populations being injured or killed of Birmingham (1.1 million), Glasgow (0.6), Cardiff (0.3) and Manchester (0.5) combined!

4. The rally after the Mega Die-In under Marble Arch will include Medical Professor Brendan Delaney, Oxford Street Bus Victim Tom Kearney, HGV cyclist victim Bart Chan, Poet Helen Moore, Opera Singer Louisa Beard and Stop Killing Cyclists Co-founder Donnachadh McCarthy.

5. The National Funeral for the Unknown Victim of Traffic Violence
10 Demands are:

  1. Stop the Killing of Children – set up national multi-billion pound programme to convert residential communities across Britain into living-street Home Zones to abolish dangerous rat-runs.
  2. Stop the Killing of Pedestrians – establish a national programme to fund pedestrianisation of our city and town centres, including the nation’s high-street – Oxford Street.
  3. Stop the Killing of Pensioners from excessive speed. Introduce and enforce speed limit of 20 mph on all urban roads, 40 mph on rural roads/lanes and 60 mph on all other trunk roads.
  4. Stop the Killing of Cyclists. Invest £15 billion in a National Segregated Cycle Network over the next 5 years.
  5. Stop the Killing by HGVs. Ban trucks with blind spots by making safety equipment mandatory and strictly enforce current truck-safety regulations, to reduce levels of illegally dangerous trucks down from estimated 30% to less than 1%.
  6. Stop the Killing without liability – introduce a presumed civil liability law on behalf of vehicular traffic when they kill or seriously injure vulnerable road-users, where there is no evidence blaming the victim.
  7. Stop the Killing from Lung, Heart and other Diseases caused by vehicular pollutants. Make it mandatory for particulate filters that meet latest EU emission standards to be fitted to all existing buses, lorries and taxis.
  8. Stop the Killing at Junctions. Introduce pedestrian crossing times long enough for elderly disabled to cross. Legalise filtered junction crossings by cyclists with strict legal priority for pedestrians and carry out urgent programme of physically protected left-hand turns for cyclists.
  9. Stop the Killing from CO2 emissions from impacts of the climate crisis. All transport fuels to be from environmentally-sustainable renewable sources within 10 years.
  10. Focus on Life! Transport governance must make safety and quality of life the top priority. Reform all council transport departments, the Department of Transport and Transport for London into Cycling, Walking and Transport Departments with formal pedestrian and cyclist representation.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *