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Road deaths lowest since 1974
Jan 27 2006
By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner


THE number of people killed on West Yorkshire's roads has fallen to an all-time low.

The tragic toll fell below 100 last year for the first time since records began in 1974, and the number of serious injuries has also plummeted. Last year 96 people died on West Yorkshire's roads.

The number of people who died or were seriously injured was 1,026 last year, down on the previous year's tally of 1,215 - the previous lowest total.

Child casualties were down from 148 in 2004 to 130 last year.

Steve Thornton, chairman of West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership, said: "The last time road fatals were in double figures was in the 1920s and think about how few vehicles there were on the road at that time."

He believes speed cameras are having a major impact on road safety and added: "There is no doubt the introduction of speed safety cameras has made a major contribution to the unprecedented fall in killed and seriously injured figures and other casualties.

"Drivers travelling at excess or inappropriate speed is the single biggest cause of death and injury on local roads. If drivers can be persuaded to make respecting the speed limits a habit - a way of life - then we will remove the biggest cause of casualties on local roads.

"It's clear motorists are listening to and engaging with this message because last week we were able to announce that the number of speeding offences detected had dropped to its lowest level in the three years since the partnership was established."

West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership is a partnership of the five metropolitan district councils of Kirklees, Calderdale, Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield along with West Yorkshire Police, West Yorkshire Health Authority, West Yorkshire Magistrates' Court Service and the Highways Authority.

The partnership installs road safety improvement measures at the worst casualty hotspots in the county.

Its long-term aims are to achieve a:

* 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents compared to the average for 1994–98.

* 50% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured.

* 10% reduction in the slight casualty rate.

They can't keep having it both ways like this. Everytime a county's annual deaths go up, they say that countywide deaths don't count: only those at camera sites. I have that in writing from Julian Hewitt.

While it is good that casualties have reduced, tt is absolutely infuriating that whenever there is even the slightest reduction they put the praise for everything onto speed cameras and how simply driving at the speed limit has saved the children, etc..

Here's some data to look at - the 96 fatalities is not really unexpected, the KSI total is pretty low - any comments?

Year - Fatal - Serious - KSI - Slight

1992 156 1767 1923 9188
1993 143 1471 1614 9149
1994 115 1411 1526 10002
1995 127 1495 1622 10301
1996 107 1396 1503 11358
1997 122 1291 1413 12161
1998 106 1250 1356 13131
1999 111 1189 1300 12341
2000 120 1178 1298 12427
2001 144 1187 1331 11809
2002 115 1204 1319 11648
2003 102 1136 1238 11566
2004 116 1099 1215 10816

I can't see how speed cameras have made any difference to the trend - it was falling anyway before the partnership started up

How about overlaying the "trend" like they did in the 4 year report appendix.

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Speed camera policy Kills

[quote="g_attrill"]


THE number of people killed on West Yorkshire's roads has fallen to an all-time low.


Child casualties were down from 148 in 2004 to 130 last year.

"It's clear motorists are listening to and engaging with this message because last week we were able to announce that the number of speeding offences detected had dropped to its lowest level in the three years since the partnership was established."

quote]

Or alternatively
- children are now listening to all the safety advice and putting it into practice.

Motorists know where all the cameras are and those that we catch are from outside thearea




Oftimes the truth is spoken in jest

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lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Yes, that's critical. Overlaying earlier trends (like the trends in the 70s and 80s) would show just how awful it really is. I'll have a go at it later if I can find the time.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

or .. (more likely in my opinion)

Children are rarely allowed out unaccompanied by adults largely because of the perceived threat of paedophiles rather than the more dangerous traffic. Even when they do go out with adults they are mainly protected by the cars they are travelling inside.

How often do you see kids walking or cycling. When I was a child I would go evrywhere on foot or bike and often unaccompanied at all. It's little surprise with increased paranoia fewer (and particularly younger less street wise kids) are exposed to the dangers of traffic.

I'm quite sure that 'speed kills' road safety policy plays a big part. Look at it from the perspective of a non-driving single mum: The government has to put up all these speed cameras to make drivers slow down - but still they don't slow down and drive safely - it is really dangerous.

School run mums are not much different - without giving it a great deal of thought they think 'other drivers' are really dangerous.

If asked to guess intelligently, I'd say at least half of the growth in the school run was down to ill-founded traffic fears.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety