Partner of Frankie Hough leads walk in Heaton Park

Calvin Buckley led the walk in Heaton Park in memory of his partner, Frankie Jules Hough, and other people died on the roads.

Calvin lost his partner Frankie and their unborn daughter Neeve after 23-year-old Adil Iqbal crashed into the back of her car which had pulled over on the M66 in Bury following a flat tyre.

Iqbal, from Accrington, was sentenced to 12-years in prison after reaching speeds of 120mph on the motorway. He filmed himself swerving from side to side and weaving in and out of traffic.

( Frankie Jules Hough)

 Calvin, 41, was among 150 people who took part in a community mile at Heaton Park as part of the RoadPeace Challenge 2024, an annual awareness-raising and fundraising week action during Global Road Safety Week.

READ MORE: Town centre mural shows off culture and heritage of Bury

School children take part in the community mile (Image: TfGM)

The event was also used as a call to action to people in Greater Manchester to help shape the region’s Vision Zero Action Plan, which aims to eliminate all deaths and life-changing injuries on local roads by 2040, by taking part in an online survey.

Around 120 Year 5 and 6 pupils from the E-ACT Blackley Academy were joined on the walk by bereaved families and representatives from the Greater Manchester Safer Roads Partnership, including Active Travel Commissioner Dame Sarah Storey and Kate Green, Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester.

Each of the participants walked at least a mile in memory of the 173 people killed as a result of fatal road traffic collisions in the North West of England in 2022. As part of Road Safety Week, pupils at E-ACT Blackley Academy also took part in road safety activities.

Sarah White, Deputy Head Teacher at E-ACT Blackley Academy, said: “The Vision Zero Action Plan launch is an important event for us to be involved in.

“Some families at our academy have unfortunately experienced life-changing events due to Manchester’s roads. Our school is located on a particularly high-risk road where serious collisions and tragedies have occurred over the years.

“It is important to us that drivers understand their responsibilities on Manchester roads and outside our school, and that our pupils recognise the risks posed. We need to all work together to keep each other safe.”

In the last ten years nearly 10,000 people who live in, work in or visit Greater Manchester have been killed or seriously injured on our roads.

In 2022, there were 71 road traffic fatalities or life-changing injuries every month in Greater Manchester. In total 64 people were killed over the course of the year – 25 of them pedestrians – and each of these deaths was preventable.

READ MORE: Tottington's Big Day Out: Popular festival returns this July

Representatives from the GM Safer Roads Partnership and RoadPeace at Heaton Park (Image: TfGM)

In January, Mayor Andy Burnham and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) endorsed a draft of the Vision Zero Strategy, and this week the public will have the chance to have their say on the draft Action Plan before any final decisions are made and published in November.

The online survey will run for six weeks from Thursday, May 16 until Thursday, June 27.

Kate Green, Deputy Mayor for Policing, Crime, Criminal Justice and Fire, said: "Road crashes have devastating and widespread impacts on our communities and the schoolchildren here today serve as a reminder of that.

“Every death or life-changing injury on our city-region’s roads is one too many and we must all work together to ensure that pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and motorists feel safe and are safe on our roads.

“By sharing your views on the initial actions we have set out to improve road safety you can help us make Vision Zero a reality.”