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| Staffordshire's roads are getting safer |
Roads get safer as caualties cut again
The number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) on Staffordshire's roads has taken another significant drop according to the latest figures.
There was a reduction of 42 in the number of people killed or seriously injured in 2007, continuing the trend of an overall reduction over the last three years. The total number of people killed or seriously injured was 316.
Significantly, the number of children and young people aged 16 - 25 years who have been killed or seriously injured has also decreased. In 2006 there were 32 under 16s KSI which fell to 21 in 2007.
In Staffordshire the "severity ratio" of 7.4 per cent is around half the national average 14.7 per cent.This measures the percentage of all road traffic crashes that have led to someone being killed or seriously injured - the lower the ratio the fewer serious crashes there have been.
These very encouraging results have been.
Carol Dean, Cabinet Member responsible for road safety said: "The welcome improvement has been brought about through a combination of education, training and publicity initiatives put into place by Staffordshire County Council working closely with the Staffordshire Casualty Reduction Partnership, police and fire services."
A continuing programme of road safety education in schools, initiatives such as Crash Investigation Project and Pass Plus Extra aimed at young people before and after taking their driving test and Ride it Right Routes and Bikesense for motorcyclists are some examples of the many activities taking place to help reduce the number of casualties on Staffordshire's roads.
In a bid to make a real improvement to the number of young people involved in road crashes, the Young Drivers Coaching Programme will be launched in the next few weeks. This includes the much publicised in-vehicle data recorder "black box" which can collect information on how well the car is being driven, the programme will build on the skills gained whilst learning to help keep young drivers safe when out on the roads.
Cllr Dean added: "We are determined to keep working to drive down the casualties on our roads and these extremely encouraging figures give us hard evidence that the efforts made by the County Council and its partner organisations are beginning to reap the ultimate benefit of saving lives.
"All too often we hear of road related death or serious injury and the pain and distress of these incidents to friends and relatives of those involved is immeasurable.
"However, we are pleased to be able to see a decrease in the number of road casualties which also brings about a decrease in the cost to society as a whole - in 2006 casualty costs were approximately well over £1.5 million. We are not going to rest on our laurels and will continue to keep the pressure on to sustain this downward trend."
Page Last Modified:
11/04/2008 14:45:10
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