Safe Speed Forums

Road death toll halved
John Scheerhout
February 06, 2009

THE death toll on Greater Manchester's roads has halved in five years.

Last year, 61 people died in crashes compared with 93 in 2007 and 126 in 2003.

The number of people seriously hurt also fell, from 993 in 2005 to 771 last year. Police say the figures reflect safer cars and campaigns to improve driving standards.

Crackdowns on speeders, drivers who don't wear seat-belts and motorists who use mobiles while at the wheel have also helped.

Police have placed speed cameras - which trap about 400 motorists a day - in 'more intelligent' positions at accident hotspots. Some 50,000 uninsured vehicles have also been taken off the roads since 2004 thanks in part to roadside cameras that check number plates.

The number of people killed on Greater Manchester roads has fallen from 126 in 2003, to 94 in 2004, 87 in 2005, 90 in 2006, 93 in 2007 and 61 last year. But police say the death toll would fall even more if people always wore seat-belts. Half the people who die in crashes were not wearing seat-belts.

Supt Alan Greene, head of GMP's Traffic Network Section, said: "There's been a large reduction in the number of deaths on the roads since 2003.

"However, we are not complacent. There are still a disproportionate number of young people killed on the roads and we need to address that."

Greater Manchester is far from the most intensively speed-cam'ed Metropolitan county (West Midlands and West Yorkshire are far worse) and also as far as I can see does not make heavy use of Talivans.

I know the late CC Mike Todd had gone on record as being somewhat sceptical of the value of speed cameras.

The fall from 126 to 61 may to some extent be a statistical blip, of course, and don't forget that road deaths everywhere are likely to fall for 2008 compared with previous years due to the high price of fuel and then the credit crunch.