29/07/2008

North-south divide highlighted in drive to cut road deaths

Road deaths are rising sharply in many parts of Britain - with huge regional variations - although the total number of people killed in crashes has dipped to an 80-year low

The number of people killed on Britain’s roads last year was 2,943, according to Department for Transport figures.

However, in several counties in southern England the number of fatalities has risen by a fifth in five years. By contrast some northern countries have seen road crash deaths tumble.

Deaths on the roads in Gwent, Cambridgeshire, Wiltshire and Devon and Cornwall police areas have increased by 20% or more since 2003. However, in Merseyside, Lancashire, Cheshire and Humberside they have fallen by more than a fifth over the same period.

Robert Gifford, director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, who analysed the figures, said that the figures reflected longstanding criticism that roads policing had never been a national priority, with Home Secretaries more concerned about issues such as drugs or knife crime.

Merseyside has had the greatest success in bringing down the number of road deaths since 2003, recording a 55% fall. The police said it had achieved that result through increased levels of enforcement.

(The Times)


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