Vulnerable road user now a non-person

Earlier this week a young woman in Tulse Hill was killed on her way to work. While using a pedestrian crossing on her way to work, she was struck and killed by a lorry. The driver failed to stop. The young woman was struck by at least another lorry and two cars - none of which stopped - before somebody thought to alert the emergency services.

Let's wait and see what the reaction of the of mainstream media will be to this shocking event, but we predict much hand wringing about a tragedy so close to Christmas and much scorn poured on the individual drivers who failed to stop. Unfortunately, the drivers are a red herring.

Of course they behaved shamefully - either they were driving so badly they failed to realise they had run over a person, or they realised they had and chose to drive on - but the real story is how as a nation, our decades-old refusal to tackle road danger has resulted in this horrific event. We all bear a collective responsibility for this person's death.

The truth of the matter is that this is what it has come to. The vulnerable road user is considered a non-person. Literally roadkill.

Lots of factors led to the adoption by The Netherlands and Sweden of a Vision Zero - a systematic approach to the reduction of road danger with the goal of no road deaths. Not a single one.

The Dutch were galvanised by the high pedestrian deaths in the early 1970s - in one year over 500 of their children were killed. The toll was considered unacceptable and gave birth to the "Stop de Kindermoord" movement (literally "Stop the Child Murder" in Dutch).

The result was a change in mind-set, law, infrastructure - a holistic approach that has transformed the way the Dutch travel.

What will it take before we her in Britain collectively decide on action? Will it be the horrific death of the young woman earlier this week? Or will we continue to look the other way?