Dirty Pretty Things Make Roads Safe

• 7th Aug 2006

Dirty Pretty Things back campaign to Make Roads Safe

Dirty Pretty Things will support the Make Roads Safe campaign with a concert in London in September.

The band will play a special gig at The Coronet, in South London, on September 13th in support of Make Roads Safe, an international campaign calling for the G8 to take action on road traffic injuries, which kill more than 1.2 million people around the world, the majority in developing countries. Two hundred pairs of tickets to the concert will be given away free by the Make Roads Safe campaign and Dirty Pretty Things to supporters in a prize draw.

Dirty Pretty Things commitment to the campaign is motivated in part by a recent tragedy in which three teenage girls were killed. Two sisters, Claire and Jennifer Stoddart, and their friend, Carla Took, died in a car crash in July while driving home from a concert in Ipswich at which Dirty Pretty Things had performed.

Phil Stoddart, the father of the two sisters killed in the crash, said;

“I hope that the Make Roads Safe campaign will help other parents avoid the pain we have been going through as a result of the tragic loss of Claire and Jennifer”.

Calling on fans to sign the Make Roads Safe online petition at www.makeroadssafe.org Carl Barat, lead singer of Dirty Pretty Things, said:

It is unbelievable that around the world a child is killed every 3 minutes on the road, yet almost nothing is being done to prevent this. The recent deaths in Suffolk of Claire, Jennifer and Carla were so sad, such a waste of young lives, and this is happening to families every day. This is why Dirty Pretty Things are supporting the Make Roads Safe campaign.

The main aim of the Make Roads Safe campaign, coordinated by the FIA Foundation and RAC Foundation, is to raise public awareness about the impact of road crashes in developing countries:

The Make Roads Safe campaign has been established to call for G8 action to tackle road deaths in low and middle income countries. The campaign, supported by an international coalition of organisations, is calling for a 300 million Action Plan for global road safety; a minimum 10% road safety element in all road programmes funded with development money; and a UN summit to address the global road safety crisis. The campaign is coordinated by the FIA Foundation and in the UK by the RAC Foundation;

The campaign also aims to raise awareness amongst young people around the world of the global, developmental problems of road safety. This will also help to raise awareness about and acceptance of domestic road safety amongst a key high risk age group in terms of road crashes in industrialized countries: young people in their late teens and early 20s;

Claire Stoddart, 18, Jennifer Stoddart, 15, and Carla Took, 18, all from Lowestoft, Suffolk, were killed on 1 July 2006 when their Vauxhall Astra was involved in a car crash. They had been returning home from a concert in Ipswich at which Dirty Pretty Things had performed. Two teenage passengers in their car were injured. In the other car, a Renault Laguna, Simon Bonner, 40, from Yoxford, Suffolk, was killed and another passenger, Kim Abbott, from Yoxford has subsequently died from her injuries. Police have arrested a 21-year man on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.

The campaign is running an online petition at link .

Make Roads Safe and Dirty Pretty Things are running a free prize draw for 200 pairs of tickets to the September gig.

See www.makeroadssafe.org or www.dirtyprettythingsband.com for more information on how to enter the draw.