Green cross code revamped to reduce adult injury toll

Published on Wednesday 15 October 2008 22:00

JAYWALKING Glaswegians are being taught how to cross the road in Scotland's first safety campaign aimed at adult pedestrians.

New adverts are launched today, after Glasgow City Council discovered that more than half the victims knocked down in the city centre last year were within 20 metres of a crossing.

It said the number of injuries remained "significant". Urging people to wait for the green man, the adverts state: "You risk it all crossing at the red man."

Glasgow has Scotland's worst pedestrian casualty rate – at 1.08 per 1,000 people, compared with 0.82 in Edinburgh and 0.56 across Scotland.

Bill Smith, a former head of road safety for the city council, said: "There is an entrenched attitude in Glasgow that it is an affront to your machismo to cross at the green man. Adults need to set an example to their children."

Peter Spinney, the Scottish chairman of the Association of British Drivers, said: "Glasgow and jaywalking are words that go together."