Agenda item

Following work done on the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment the Health and Well-being Board felt that accidents on the roads was an area where they little information. As a result Rod Reynolds and Helen Roberts from the Safer Roads Partnership had been invited to the meeting.

Rod Reynolds explained that the people killed and seriously injured on the roads was a tragedy for those involved and also had a huge impact on the services involved in terms of cost and staffing issues.  The Safer Roads Partnership looked at where, why and what was happening on the roads and what partners could do together to address the issues.

The Warwickshire and West Mercia Road Safety Teams worked in partnership as The Road Safety Partnership. Funding had been reduced in 2010/11 but a cost recovery scheme through speed awareness training allowed the Partnership to continue.

Helen Roberts, Partnership Business Analyst, presented figures on the risk and impact of those killed and seriously injured (KSI) on the roads. There had been a big increase in those killed on the roads in Worcestershire.

Of the district areas, Wychavon saw the highest numbers of KSI accidents while Bromsgrove has the highest number of deaths by road accidents. As well as the high emotional cost, accidents in Worcestershire cost £114 million. All accidents were recorded by causation factors according to the Officer who attended at the time. These causes were split into 5 groups, with speed and poor driving recorded as the main reasons for accidents.

The SRP also recognised an increase in risky behaviour– 56% feel that speed cameras save lives while 48% feel they are used to make money. A higher number of people than in previous years felt that they knew how much alcohol was too much and there was an increase in the feeling that people felt that accidents were things which happened to other people.

Various educational campaigns had been run to try to address those risky behaviours. The road Safety Teams also carried out speed enforcement.

In the ensuing discussion the following points were made:

·       The accident figures took into account the increased housing development and were based on how many vehicle miles were travelled each year and how much that was increasing. The figures were numbers of KSIs rather than a rate compared to the overall number of road users and it was noted that this reduced their meaningful analysis, but was the only available data

·       The SRP looked at various factors such as the economy, rates of employment, weather and planned events and then policing was arranged appropriately

·       A higher proportion of non-Worcestershire residents were caught speeding than Worcestershire residents; but Worcestershire residents were caught up in any resulting accidents

·       It was confirmed that Worcestershire's increase in the number of deaths on the road was quite high, in fact in 2016 Worcestershire was nearly the worst in the country (42 out of 43) for the number of people killed or seriously injured per vehicle mile and since then the numbers have increased

·       In Bromsgrove the high number of deaths was not due to the motorway.  In fact the number of people killed or seriously injured was highest in 30mph areas

·       Some accidents were due to road use by older people and also medications which interfered with people's ability to drive

·       Only recently have the police been able to test for drugs on the roadside and it was an emerging issue. Campaigns would be targeted in future to reflect drug use and it was noted that community pharmacies were a good partner in campaigns aimed at older people and prescribed drugs

·       There had been no significant decrease in the numbers of drink drive fatalities following campaigns. Board Members wondered if the campaign needed to be changed. The SRP felt that the Grey Area campaign stating that the only safe level of alcohol was none and social media campaigns which were getting people to ask 'why did I do that' were successful

·       A question from outside the Board asked about what actions could be taken when motoring affects people in their own homes and people become scared about what was happening on the roads. If Road Safety Officers feel that people are behaving in an anti-social way they would refer them to the police

·       Rod Reynolds thanked the County Council for its support.

RESOLVED that the Health and Well-being Board thanked Rod Reynolds and Helen Roberts for highlighting the issues concerning road safety and would want to include road safety data in future JSNA work.