Road deaths at record low

Jun 27 2008 by Paul Loraine, The Journal

THERE were fewer deaths on North East roads last year than in any of the previous six years, new figures showed yesterday.

A report from the Department of Transport revealed a total of 44 people died on the roads within the command area of Northumbria Police in 2007 and 29 were killed in that period in County Durham – the same number as the previous year.

However 61 people died in the Northumbria Police area in 2006 and the number has regularly been over 60 since 2002. Last year, there were 530 people seriously injured on the roads in the Northumbria Police area, while 217 suffered the same fate in Durham.

The regional outlook mirrored a national trend, as for the first time since road casualty records began in 1926, the number of people killed on Britain’s roads has dropped below the 3,000-a-year mark.

Across the country, deaths of children aged up to 15 last year dipped 28%, with child pedestrian deaths falling 20%. Meanwhile, deaths involving car users dropped 11% but goods vehicle driver fatalities rose 21%.

AA president Edmund King said: “The battle to cut death and injury on the road must go on and it will get tougher to reduce the numbers still further. In the short term much can be done by better enforcing the drink-drive, seatbelt and mobile phone laws.”

In 2000, the Government announced a new road safety strategy and set new targets for reducing casualties by 2010.

It wants to see a 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents compared with the average for 1994-98, a 50% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured and a 10% reduction in the slight casualty rate. Commenting on the 2007 statistics, Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said: “These figures are extremely encouraging. They show that for the first time since records began in 1926 the number of people killed on our roads has fallen below 3,000.

“We’ve cut the number of people killed or seriously injured each year by more than a third since the mid-1990s. That means almost 17,000 fewer deaths or serious injuries on our roads last year.

“But these figures make us determined to do even more. Far too many people are still dying and we will continue to do everything we can to improve road safety and further reduce the numbers of people killed or injured.”

Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Norman Baker said: “Any fall in the number of road casualties is welcome, but the fact remains that you are 100 times more likely to be killed on the roads than the railways. It is still safer and greener to travel by train.”

Road deaths peaked in 1941 when 9,169 people were killed, although the war-time blackout would have contributed to the high figure. The post-war death toll started rising in the 1960s, reaching 7,985 in 1966. When data was first published in 1926, there were 4,886 deaths.