Factsheets - No.3: Road Safety Enforcement and Casualty Reduction
Accident Statistics
- 3,431 people died on our roads last year (compared with 3,443 in 2001), 179 were children[1] (218 in 2001)
- Almost 5 times more people are killed on the roads than are murdered
- Though the UK has safer roads than the EU average, road accidents are the leading cause of death and hospital admission for Europeans under 45 [2]
Government Targets
- As part of its 10 Year Plan for Transport the Government has set a target of a 40% reduction in those killed or seriously injured in road accidents; a 50% fall in children killed or seriously injured; and a 10% cut in minor casualties
Police Road Casualty Priorities
- The strategic aim of the Association of Chief Police Officers' (ACPO) National Road Policing Strategy is to "secure an environment where the individual can use the roads with confidence, free from death, injury, damage or fear"
Vehicle Speed
- Illegal and inappropriate vehicle speed is one of the biggest contributors to road accidents and tackling the problem is one of ACPOs highest operational priorities [3]
- Illegal and inappropriate speed kills around 1200 people every year and injures a further 100,000 [4]
- In urban areas, 70% of cars exceed 30 mph speed limits, with 27% doing more than 40mph [5]
- Accidents involving speeding cost the taxpayer £885 million in terms of lost output, medical, ambulance and human costs in 1998 [6]
- A year later it also cost the criminal justice system (including the police) nearly £1 billion [7]
The Impact of Speed Cuts on Casualties
- For every 1% reduction in mean traffic speed, fatalities reduce by about 7% [8]
- Lowering impact speed also reduces the severity of the injury. When a vehicle travelling at 40 mph collides with a pedestrian, nine out of ten are killed. Travelling at 30 mph, five out of ten pedestrians are killed. At 20 mph one pedestrian is killed, but nine survive [9]
- For example Havant Borough Council which has imposed a 20mph speed limit on 20 miles of road has seen traffic accident casualties drop by 40%
Police Measures to Reduce Speeding: Speed Cameras
- The number of people killed or seriously injured has been shown to fall by 35% at sites after speed cameras are introduced by the local Police Force [10]
- Average vehicle speed at cameras sites has been shown to drop by around 10% or 3.7mph [10]
- The reduction in speed is more noticeable at fixed camera sites. At these sites the number of vehicles exceeding the speed limit drops by 67%, compared to 37% at mobile sites [10]
- The reduction in vehicle speed is particularly noticeable in urban areas (with 30mph and 40mph limits) where average speed is reduced by 12-13% [10]
- At camera sites, excessive speeding (defined as the proportion of vehicles exceeding the speed limit by more than 15mph) can be virtually eliminated. This has been shown to fall by 96% at fixed camera sites and by 55% at mobile camera sites [10]
Cost of Speed Reducing Resources
Treasury rules means the money is invested in the further purchase and maintenance of speed cameras and so increases road safety resources.
Home Office Research, Cost Benefit Analysis of Traffic Light & Speed Cameras, 1996 shows:
- Installing and operating traffic light and speed cameras delivers a significant net monetary benefit through accident reduction and prosecution
- The 'pay back' period for speed cameras was short with a £5.3 million investment to install speed cameras being returned five times over after one year and more than 25 times after ten years
- Speed cameras also release traffic officers for other duties. A saving of just 1% in traffic officer time has been shown to equate to a saving of up to £4 million at a national level
(1) DETR, Road Casulaties Great Britain 2000
(2) European Transport Safety Council
(3) ACPO, National Road Policing Strategy
(4) DETR, Annual Report 1999
(5) DETR, Vehicle Speeds in Great Britain 1997, 1998
(6) Home Office Research, Social & Economic Costs of Crime, 2000, using Highways Economics Note 1998
(7) Home Office Research, Social & Economic Costs of Crime, 2000
(8) Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety
(9) South Wales Police
(10) DfT, A Cost Recovery System for Speed and Red Light Cameras: 2 Year Pilot Evaluation, 2003