THE FIRST permanent memorial for road traffic victims in Warwickshire has been unveiled.
It is located at Hartshill Hayes Country Park near Nuneaton and was funded by Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership.
The memorial features an engraved tree of life and is inscribed ‘Remembering lives lost and injured on our roads in Warwickshire’.
It sits as part of the park’s commemorative wood and offers families a peaceful location to remember family members, friends or colleagues who lost their lives on the county’s roads.
The proposed memorial was first revealed last November at a service at Warwick’s St Mary’s Church to commemorate the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.
Chair of Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership Philip Seccombe said: “In Warwickshire we provide specialist support to the families of those killed or seriously injured in road collisions, through the Police Family Liaison Officers and also through the significant work of the Independent Road Traffic Victim Advocate.
“We wanted to take this ground-breaking work further with the memorial, which serves as a poignant reminder of the need to raise awareness about the devastating consequences of road traffic collisions.
“Each year, lives are needlessly lost and the partnership is working hard to make our roads safer and encourage everyone to be responsible road users.”
The memorial was unveiled by road safety campaigner Sharron Huddleston, who lost her 18-year-old daughter Caitlin in a collision in 2017. She was the passenger in a car driven by her friend, a young and newly-qualified driver. Sharron has since worked with road safety charity Brake in Caitlin’s memory.
Memorial – left to right – Warwickshire Police chaplin Matthew Hopley, Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership chair Philip Seccombe, road safety campaigner Sharron Huddleston, Warwickshire Police Asst Ch Con Ben Smith, Craig Cooke from West Midlands Ambulance Service and Warwickshire chief fire officer Ben Brook.
