Road Safety Wales is asking everyone in Wales to consider if the journeys they are making are absolutely essential.

Along with other key workers, our emergency services and NHS colleagues have worked tirelessly over the past year doing everything possible to keep us safe – putting themselves in danger, sometimes with the worst outcome imaginable for them and their families. If you are starting to feel really fed up and worn out due to the pandemic, please spare a thought for how these people must be feeling.

If just one person decides to make a non-essential journey and is unfortunate to be involved in a collision, the added pressure this puts on our emergency responders and hospitals can be huge.

They have no option but to work closely with colleagues and other organisations to extract people from their vehicles, perform emergency life-saving treatment at the roadside and protect the public from criminal activity – putting their own health at risk in the process. Where someone is then taken to hospital, the impact this has on already stretched resources can be significant and long-lasting.

What may not seem like a big deal - taking a trip to see friends or family, travelling to beauty spots for exercise or planning to meet people from other households at the supermarket to make it appear like you’re not breaking any rules – can escalate in to something that nobody ever imagined would happen. Now consider if hundreds or thousands of other people also decided to selfishly ignore the restrictions or convinced themselves they can bend the rules to suit their own circumstances. Not only are they at risk of catching coronavirus and spreading it to others, they risk adding to the burden already on our NHS and emergency services if they are involved in a collision.

Think it won’t happen to you? Well, despite the restrictions in place throughout nearly all of 2020, despite being told to ‘stay at home to save lives’ and despite the roads being generally quieter, unfortunately we still saw a substantial amount of people injured in road traffic collisions in Wales.

Thank you to the majority of people that are adhering to the Welsh Government restrictions to stay at home, except when:

• Shopping for essentials
• Working, if you can't from home
• Exercising locally

If you are one of the minority of people showing little consideration for others, please think about who you still expect to come rushing to look after you if you are involved in a collision or are admitted to hospital.
Do the right thing; stay home, save lives.