Is Scotland any safer than England?
Is Scotland any safer than England?
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The Surveyor

Original Poster:

7,624 posts

267 months

Thursday 16th February 2017
quotequote all
Without wishing to get into any discussions over specifics, given that Scotland appears to be pushing a harder line against motorists with reduced tolerance to drink driving and a more robust approach to speed enforcement, is there any evidence to say that the approach is working in improving the safety of Scottish roads.

The UK roads are pretty safe already when compared to the rest of the world which is a real positive, but now we are getting a different cross-boarder approach is there any cross-boarder reduction in accidents in support of the reasoning behind the approach?


vonhosen

40,597 posts

247 months

Thursday 16th February 2017
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Only time will tell, there isn't going to be sufficient data yet.

Leithen

14,060 posts

297 months

Thursday 16th February 2017
quotequote all
Comparison of Scotland vs the rest of UK is hard given population density, road network differences etc.

Year on year comparison within Scotland after the changes mentioned will be interesting however.

The Surveyor

Original Poster:

7,624 posts

267 months

Thursday 16th February 2017
quotequote all
I know the reduced drink driving threshold is relatively new, but they have been much more liberal with the use of speed cameras in Scotland for years, you would have though the Scottish Government would have been putting out messages of support if they had any statistics in support.

The Surveyor

Original Poster:

7,624 posts

267 months

Thursday 16th February 2017
quotequote all
Leithen said:
...
Year on year comparison within Scotland after the changes mentioned will be interesting however.
That's what I was thinking. Ties in the 'Speed Awareness Course' topic, the 'Prison for speeding / Dangerous Driving' topics, and will bring in the drink driving differences, it would give some support or not to the differing approaches.



Yipper

5,964 posts

120 months

Thursday 16th February 2017
quotequote all
Wales = 1 road fatality per 30k inhabitants in 2015.
Scotland = 1 road fatality per 33k inhabitants in 2015.
England = 1 road fatality per 37k inhabitants in 2015.

By this measure, England is 10-20% less safe than Scotland and Wales.

Would need to calculate "deaths per mile traveled" to say definitively, but it does look at first glance like England is safer than Scotland.

If someone has a calculator and some spare time, you can work out which is the best and worst region in the UK from this infographic:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa...

Edited by Yipper on Thursday 16th February 22:13

kiethton

14,656 posts

210 months

Thursday 16th February 2017
quotequote all
Yipper said:
Wales = 1 road fatality per 30k inhabitants in 2015.
Scotland = 1 road fatality per 33k inhabitants in 2015.
England = 1 road fatality per 37k inhabitants in 2015.

By this measure, Wales is 10-20% safer than Scotland and England.

Would need to calculate "deaths per mile traveled" to say definitively, but it does look at first glance like overcrowded England is less safe than sparse Scotland.

If someone has a calculator and some spare time, you can work out which is the best and worst region in the UK from this infographic:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa...
^^^ wrong way around

Monkeylegend

29,376 posts

261 months

Thursday 16th February 2017
quotequote all
kiethton said:
Yipper said:
Wales = 1 road fatality per 30k inhabitants in 2015.
Scotland = 1 road fatality per 33k inhabitants in 2015.
England = 1 road fatality per 37k inhabitants in 2015.

By this measure, Wales is 10-20% safer than Scotland and England.

Would need to calculate "deaths per mile traveled" to say definitively, but it does look at first glance like overcrowded England is less safe than sparse Scotland.

If someone has a calculator and some spare time, you can work out which is the best and worst region in the UK from this infographic:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa...
^^^ wrong way around
Yes, looks like England is safest.

majordad

3,631 posts

227 months

Thursday 16th February 2017
quotequote all
Yipper said:
Wales = 1 road fatality per 30k inhabitants in 2015.
Scotland = 1 road fatality per 33k inhabitants in 2015.
England = 1 road fatality per 37k inhabitants in 2015.

By this measure, Wales is 10-20% safer than Scotland and England.

Would need to calculate "deaths per mile traveled" to say definitively, but it does look at first glance like overcrowded England is less safe than sparse Scotland.

If someone has a calculator and some spare time, you can work out which is the best and worst region in the UK from this infographic:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa...
Just for reference, we in Ireland ( Eire ) had a bad accident year in 2016. 186 deaths and a population of 4,700,000 makes us 1 road fatality in every 25,000 of population. Pretty bad as you can see.

surveyor

18,699 posts

214 months

Thursday 16th February 2017
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What I would like to see... Is someone drink more than the Scottish limit, but less than the UK one. Be followed by the Scottish Police, stopped in England....

Would love to see the outcome of that one....

Not so much that I will test it myself I hasten to add!

Dr Jekyll

23,820 posts

291 months

Thursday 16th February 2017
quotequote all
The Surveyor said:
I know the reduced drink driving threshold is relatively new, but they have been much more liberal with the use of speed cameras in Scotland for years, you would have though the Scottish Government would have been putting out messages of support if they had any statistics in support.
Perhaps the idea behind reducing the drink driving threshold is that it might result in an accident reduction which can then be attributed to the speed cameras.

ging84

9,548 posts

176 months

Thursday 16th February 2017
quotequote all
Why do people without a basic grasp of how numbers work bother looking up statistics