Not an automatic life-saver
Figures released today by the Department for Transport reveal a long-awaited reduction in UK road deaths -- the lowest annual figure since 1926 -- although the regional breakdown shows a fall in some areas without speed cameras, and a rise in Wales, where adherence to a speed camera programme approaches religion.
- There were 280,840 reported casualties on roads in Great Britain in 2004, 3 per cent fewer than in 2003. 3,221 people were killed, eight per cent fewer than in 2003. 31,130 were seriously injured (down eight per cent on 2003) and 246,489 were slightly injured (down three per cent on 2003).
- There were 207,410 road accidents involving personal injury in 2004, 3 per cent fewer than in 2003. Of these, 29,726 involved death or serious injury.
- Child casualties fell by 3 per cent. There were 166 child fatalities, 3 per cent fewer than in 2003.
- The number of children killed or seriously injured in 2004 was 3,905 down 5 per cent on 2003. Of those, 2,339 were pedestrians, 2 per cent down on 2003.
- Car user casualties decreased by 2 per cent on the 2003 level to 183,858 although fatalities were 6 per cent lower.
- Pedestrian casualties were 34,881 in 2004, 4 per cent fewer than 2003. Pedestrian deaths were 13 per cent fewer than 2003 at 671 and serious injuries fell by 5 per cent to 6,807.
- Pedal cyclist casualties were 2 per cent lower than in 2003 at 16,648. There were 2,174 seriously injured casualties, 5 per cent fewer than in 2003. The number of pedal cyclists killed went up by 18 per cent from 114 to 134.
- Two wheeled motor vehicles user casualties were lower than the 2003 level at 25,641 in 2004.
- The number killed fell 16 per cent to 585 and the number of seriously injured also fell by 13 per cent to 6,063.
Founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign Paul Smith said, "The fall in road deaths is clearly a triumph of engineering over policy. In fact bad road safety policy has been making our roads more dangerous for over a decade. This welcome fall will undoubtedly be attributed to policy, but since policy is substantially unchanged from last year when deaths rose, that wouldn't make any sense at all would it?"
"Road safety in the UK is being mismanaged and widely misunderstood. The modern emphasis on vehicle speeds is so wide of the mark that it would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic. And 'tragic' is indeed the word, because if former trends in road safety had continued throughout the speed camera decade we'd be down to about 2,000 road deaths each year by now."
Smith highlighted some substantial and beneficial road safety gains currently underway:
- Improvements in vehicle safety (thought to make fatalities four per cent less likely each year as vehicle safety improvements ripple into the national fleet.)
- Improvements in road engineering (accident black spot treatments, and roads development transferring traffic to better roads (e.g. bypasses)). A good working estimate for the benefit of roads engineering is around two per cent annually.)
- Improvements in post crash medical care (thought to save more lives at the roadside by about one per cent annually).
These benefits need to be offset against the growth in traffic currently running at about two per cent a year, according to the Government's figures.
Smith said, "I believe that we would see road deaths fall by between five and seven per cent with no 'policy intervention' at all - just as they did throughout the 1970s, 80s and early 90s. But deaths hadn't fallen for a decade despite massive policy intervention (reduced speed limits and speed cameras especially). This indicates with crystal clarity that the policy failed in its stated purpose of saving lives."
Official road safety targets are based on 'Killed and Seriously Injured' (KSI) figures. But it is widely known and acknowledged that the recorded serious injury figures only roughly reflect road safety because there are large and variable numbers of road injuries that are neither reported to the police nor recorded in the statistics.
Road deaths are also down in both the areas without camera partnerships. Down in Durham (24 per cent), and in North Yorkshire (nine per cent) -- both by more than the average change.
Road deaths were up by a shameful 18 per cent in North Wales, where arch speed camera proponent Richard Brunstrom is Chief Constable. Wales overall saw road deaths rise by 16 per cent.