Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport – in the Senedd at 2:06 pm on 6 June 2018.
Can I extend my deepest sympathies to the families of those who have died on the roads of north Wales in recent weeks? We have seen a significant number of, particularly, motor cyclists who've died on the roads of north Wales this year to date, and I'm keen to make sure that we use the mid-term review of the road safety framework to enhance not just the provision of GoSafe cameras on the roads of north Wales to ensure that motor cyclists are riding safely, and that drivers are also driving safely, because it's not always the fault of motor cyclists when accidents happen—. Now, the mid-term review of the road safety framework showed that good progression—good progress, rather—was being made with the targets for an overall reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured, but there was one particular statistic that stood out that was deeply alarming, and that concerned the continued rise of death amongst motor cyclists.
I can inform the Member that, in addition to the BikeSafe scheme, we have now begun discussions with a national not-for-profit road safety organisation about the potential for their Two Wheels motor cycling courses to operate in Wales, and we're also looking at working with the education department on the potential to include road safety within the health and well-being area of learning and experience. It's vital that we don't just look at solving this problem today, but we look at solving the problem for many years to come, and so the shorter term objective will be to drive down the number of motor cyclists that are killed or seriously injured through enhancing the provision of courses. Longer term, we wish to ensure that young people, once they reach an age where they can ride on a motor cycle, have had the right education and training that should enable them to ride safely.