When Mat MacDonald was appointed as the West Midlands Combined Authority’s Road Safety Commissioner, it was with the aim of stopping deaths and serious injuries through reckless driving.

In his first 12 months in the role, the NHS doctor has been working on progressing key developments including reducing speed limits, introducing red light cameras, improving safety measures and encouraging more sustainable transport, says the Express & Star.

And he said a lot more is to come if the region is to achieve the ‘Vision Zero’ aim of having no deaths or serious injuries on West Midlands’ roads by 2040,” says Mat MacDonald.

“In my campaigning work, I had the privilege of meeting several families who have suffered the most unimaginable losses on our roads in terms of people who have been killed and seriously injured.”

“Rectifying the injustices they have faced is really what has propelled me into this work. Knowing Mayor Richard Parker shares that sense of injustice and shares that desire to change the system on our roads which is failing people too often, has been a really incredible opportunity for me.”

One of his major pieces of work has been the development of the joint working agreement on speed and red light enforcement. Work is ongoing on how that can be funded and rolled out across the region.

“This has been a really important milestone. It will help us deliver more average speed enforcement across the region and it already is,” he added.

“Birmingham has taken this on and they have got a programme of a few average speed enforcement locations they are starting to roll out.

“They’ve also done some great work on reducing the speed limits from 40 to 30 on some of the bigger roads that go through the city.”

(Picture: West Midlands Combined Authority)