Elementary road safety measures quickly pay back the costs of investment and, more importantly, help save lives as Patrick Smith reports
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.According to this year's tracking survey by the Road Safety Foundation on these roads alone, fatal and serious crashes dropped 62% from 494 to 190.
Over the last decade 30,000 have been killed on Britain's roads and 300,000 seriously injured in crashes.
The latest report, Simple Measures Save Lives, marks ten years of data from the foundation and comes as the world joins together to tackle road casualties in the first United Nations (UN) Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 (see next page).
It shows that elementary safety measures are paying back the costs of investment in an average of ten weeks. The savings are worth over £50 million (€57 million) annually to emergency services, the National Health Service, local authority care, businesses and families.
The foundation, a UK charity advocating road casualty reduction through simultaneous action on all three components of the safe road system (roads, vehicles and behaviour) has been mapping and tracking the rate of death and serious injury on Britain's motorways and main roads as part of the European Road Assessment Programme (
This year's most improved road is an 11km section of the A4128 through County Buckinghamshire from Great Missenden-High Wycombe, having moved from one of Britain's highest risk roads to one of the safest: fatal and serious collisions dropped by 89%, from 19 to two.
Connecting local villages it carries high volumes of commuter traffic, and safety measures put in place include new speed restrictions and the innovative use of solar-powered road studs to improve night-time visibility.
The
No hiding place for offenders
Motorists who commit motoring offences when in a country other than their own will in future be brought to book more easily.
This is due to closer cooperation between European police forces and EU-wide enforcement of traffic rules, drawn up under plans approved by the European Parliament's Transport Committee.
Traffic police authorities will be able to pursue offenders in their home country by using the EUROCARIS data exchange system. Speeding, driving under the influence of drink or drugs, failure to wear seatbelts, illegal use of mobile phones, using bus lanes, not wearing helmets when riding a motorcycle and crossing red lights are among the offences covered by the legislation.
Harmonising basic traffic rules and setting common standards for sanctions and enforcement procedures in future would help further reduce the death toll on Europe's roads, stressed MEPs during the debate ahead of the vote.
Strong revision clauses and reporting obligations for Member States were included at the instigation of Spanish MEP Inés Ayala-Sender who is steering the legislation through Parliament. Her report was adopted by a large majority by the Transport Committee, paving the way for a second reading agreement before the summer break.
The directive will enter into force at the latest two years after adoption and will be subject to close monitoring and assessment by the
Of the UK's 15 most improved roads, almost half are single carriageways, and are spread across the country. Consultation with road authorities on these sections found that common crash types were 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, and central safety barriers Dr Joanne Hill, a director of the Road Safety Foundation, says: "These are practical, largely inexpensive solutions which will pay back the costs of investment in an average of ten 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 (10km) section of M6 motorway between England and the Scottish border. After 16 years of delays, the motorway was completed in 2008. Deaths and serious injuries dropped from 15 to 2.
Britain's most persistently high risk roads are concentrated in the north-west and East Midlands, and are often rural single carriageways, challenging to drive, with frequent blind corners and sweeping bends. Lighter traffic allows higher speeds and opportunities for safe overtaking can be restricted.
Topping the list, once more, is the A537 Macclesfield-Buxton (known nationally as the Cat and Fiddle), a 12km section across the Peak District National Park, which has seen crashes rise by 62% in the last three years, with the equivalent of three fatal or serious injury crashes for every 3km. A 50mph (90km/hour) single carriageway, the route has severe bends, steep falls from the carriageway and is edged by dry-stone walls or rock face for almost all of its length.
"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," says Dr Hill.
However, the risk levels on non-primary single carriageway A-roads remain a cause for concern, with these roads accounting for a large proportion of fatal and serious crashes.
"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," added Dr Hill.
