Road Safety Foundation release tracking data 2011 and IAM comment
The Road Safety Foundation (RSF) has released a report entitled ‘Simple Measures Save Lives’ that shows elementary safety measures are paying back the costs of investment in an average of 10 weeks, with the savings themselves worth over £50 million annually to emergency services, the NHS, local authority care, businesses and families.
The RSF estimate that more than 300 people in the UK are alive today or have avoided the prospect of a lifetime of special care because just 15 roads have had simple improvements put in place. On these 15 roads alone, fatal and serious crashes dropped 62% from 494 to 190.
Most improved roads
This year’s most improved road is an 11km section of the A4128 through Buckinghamshire from Great Missenden to High Wycombe. Over the last two surveys, it has moved from one of Britain’s highest risk roads with to one of the safest. Over this time, fatal and serious collisions dropped by 89%, from 19 to 2. The safety measures put in place on this busy single carriageway A road include some new speed restrictions; and an innovative use of solar-powered road studs to improve night-time visibility.
Of the UK’s 15 most improved roads, almost half are single carriageways, and are spread across the country with the most common crash types being single vehicles losing control at bends and rear-end collisions at junctions and during busy periods.
Improvements on the 15 roads include:
- signing, markings and the design and layout of junctions
- speed limit review and the use of speed enforcement
- resurfacing, including the use of high-friction, anti-skid treatments on bends
- central safety barriers
On these 15 improved routes, Dr Joanne Hill says: “These are practical, largely inexpensive solutions which will pay back the costs of investment in an average of 10 weeks – a 500% rate of return in the first year alone – and go on saving lives and saving money for the nation for many years to come. Much of this remedial work can be done as part of routine maintenance.”
Only one major scheme features in the top 15 list of most improved sections – the notorious “Cumberland Gap”, a missing 6 mile section of M6 motorway between England and the Scottish Border. After 16 years of delays, the motorway was finally completed in 2008. The resulting drop in deaths and serious injuries was dramatic – down from 15 to 2. Dr Hill comments: “The lesson of the ‘Cumberland Gap’ is that motorways are Britain’s safest roads and that there are safety dividends from upgrading deficits in safety features on busy dual carriageways.”
High risk roads
Of Britain’s most persistently high risk roads the A537 Macclesfield to Buxton, known nationally as the Cat and Fiddle, once again tops the list and has seen crashes rise by 62% in the last three years.
The other high risk roads named are concentrated in the North West and East Midlands and include the A18 between the A16 (Ludborough) to A46 (Laceby); A577 Ormskirk to the M58 J5 (Skelmersdale); and additional roads around Bolton, Wakefield, Worksop, Knottingley, Nantwich and Hastings. These routes are not traditionally scenic routes or tourist areas, but a combination of rural and more built-up sections, with frequent junctions, varying speed limits and used heavily by local commuters
Dr Joanne Hill concludes: “Busy, high-risk roads can be eliminated affordably with high economic returns. Over the last three years, the number of fatal crashes on motorways and A roads has dropped by 21%. Over the past decade average risk on Britain’s motorways and A roads has halved. While motorways and dual carriageways are moving towards the ‘low risk’ benchmark, the risk levels on non-primary single carriageway A roads in particular remain a cause for concern. These roads account for a large proportion of fatal and serious crashes and the majority of these routes are rated as ‘higher risk’.
“We have worked with road authorities to demonstrate the importance to drivers of route consistency and predictability. We need to design out the hidden surprises that can result in tragic consequences. Simple Measures Save Lives details the success stories in reducing the most serious crashes and shows how affordable investment in simple measures works. The challenge for the next decade is to help authority leaders and public understand that the tragedy and cost of routine, predictable road deaths is avoidable.”
Key facts
- 30,000 killed on Britain’s roads in the last decade
- 300,000 seriously injured in crashes on Britain’s roads in the last decade
- 73 people, on average, are killed or seriously injured on our roads every day
- 11% The road network assessed represents just 11% Britain’s road length but accounts for 54% of the traffic and over half the road deaths
- 21% reduction in the number of fatal crashes on UK motorways and A roads over the last three years
- 8% of Britain’s motorways and A roads have unacceptably high risk
- In the last 10 years average risk on motorways and A roads has halved moving from medium risk to low risk
- 90% of motorways achieve the best possible safety standard, compared to 35% of duals and just 14% of single carriageways
- 65% of all fatal and serious crashes occur on single carriageways, 14% on mixed, 11% on duals and 10% on motorways
- Single carriageways have 6 times the risk of motorways and 3 times the risk of duals
- Motorcyclists account for just 1% of traffic but 21% of all road deaths
- 1 in 4 fatal and serious crashes on our motorways and A roads involves a motorcyclist
This latest report marks 10 years of data from the Road Safety Foundation, and significantly comes as the world joins together to tackle road casualties in the first UN Decade of Action for Road Safety.
IAM comment
IAM director of policy and research Neil Greig said: “The report supports the argument for continued investment in small scale improvements. Simple measures really do save lives.
“There is no replacement for experience on as wide a range of roads as possible when learning to drive though. Rural roads again come up as the biggest risk factor – and these roads are still not a mandatory part of the basic driving test. Five star roads and five star cars are essential, but without five star drivers the road safety system is incomplete.”
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