“Speed cameras are not the sole solution to reducing the carnage”

While speed cameras were among the measures implemented at five locations, the data shows that cameras are not the sole solution to reducing the carnage, argues Paul Watters, head of roads and transport policy at the AA Motoring Trust – one of the more than 20 motoring organisations, road authorities and expert bodies across Europe working together to make Europe’s roads safer. The report highlights how the number of fatal and serious injury collisions has reduced by up to 78% on the various roads through a range of initiatives, including fixed and mobile cameras – but only at five locations – as well as speed limit reductions, junction improvements, new road markings, traffic signal improvements, anti-skid road surfaces and pedestrian facilities.

Erecting a speed camera typically costs £25,000 and can be as high as £40,000, according to Mr Watters. However, he also points out that white lines cost £1 per metre; a pedestrian refuge costs £2,000; “fixing” a bend with an anti-skid surface, improved signage and new road markings can cost as little as £10,000; crash barriers cost £100,000 per kilometre and will be cheaper for a longer stretch; and transforming a four-way junction into a roundabout costs from £500,000. “All of these options are cheap and, compared to the cost of a fatality, these sums are peanuts,” says Mr Watters. “Improving infrastructure is a very worthwhile investment.

“Speed cameras are sometimes seen as an easy option and I can think of one or two locations in Britain where I cannot understand why that option was chosen. There is usually an engineering solution at most high-risk areas.” However, Mr Watters admits that speed cameras have their place and are part of the road safety “tool kit”, but he adds: “It is very clear that as accidents become more random, the EuroRAP philosophy becomes stronger and the road system will consequently be safer. “By engineering in road safety a number of crashes may still happen, but they will frequently be less severe – it may be a glancing blow against a crash barrier rather than a fatality.” Since its launch in 2000, EuroRAP – a sister programme to Euro NCAP – shows how travel on different roads carries a greater or lesser risk of being killed or seriously injured in a collision. EuroRAP acknowledges that Britain’s roads are getting safer – the number of roads rated high and medium-high risk has fallen almost 30% from 113 to 80 since 2002.

Sir Brian Shaw, chairman of the AA Motoring Trust, says in the latest report: “There is no room for complacency, however. For every mile of Britain’s most dangerous roads at least one person – and sometimes as many as seven – is killed or seriously injured in each three-year accounting period. Roads outside built-up areas, mainly single carriageways, contribute about two-thirds of Britain’s fatal traffic collisions.” Risk rates for Britain’s most dangerous roads are 10 times higher when compared to the safest sections and Sir Brian says: “There would be an outcry if EuroRAP-style league tables for railway safety showed that passengers were far more likely to be killed on a train travelling on one stretch of line than on another. Regrettably, identification of Britain’s most dangerous roads does not yet provoke the same reaction.” AA Motoring Trust director Bert Morris says: “We now know the roads where deaths and serious injuries are routine and predictable. Our analysis highlights where resources can be targeted to save most lives. ‘Big-wins’ in road safety, such as compulsory seatbelt wearing or changing attitudes to drink-driving have saved thousands of lives.

“The report shows how some relatively simple road-engineering solutions, together with speed compliance technology, on ‘unforgiving’ roads could also slash the death toll on British roads. All roads, can be made much safer for the great majority of responsible road users.” EuroRAP calculates that if the standard of Britain’s roads could be raised to perform as well as the average for each road type, the annual toll of fatal and serious injury collisions could be reduced by almost 1,400 – 20%. That would save about 200 lives and 1,500 serious injuries each year. However, there are fears that a massive shortfall in Britain’s road maintenance budget will be detrimental to the safety crusade. This year’s Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance (ALARM) Survey revealed a £1bn shortfall in road maintenance funding. It also highlighted that £93m had been paid out in compensation claims by local authorities for vehicle damage or accidents and that the number of cracks and potholes in roads had increased by 70% in the last decade.

“For every mile of Britain's most dangerous roads, at least one person is killed or seriously injured in each three-year accounting period”

Suggesting that successive governments had done little more than perpetuate a backlog of work that would not be cleared for at another 10 years, the survey authors said the decline in road maintenance came despite increasing concerns over safety, congestion and increased compensation claims. The RAC Foundation for Motoring said it was clear that there was a threat to the safety of road users caused by road maintenance underfunding and called on the government for a commitment of more cash to address the problems. Mr Watters says that while EuroRAP was focused on risk mapping and the encouragement of innovative road design to reduce road crashes, he had been simultaneously emphasising the need for “basic road hygiene” or maintenance. A similar picture to the ALARM report was painted by the government’s own national road condition survey this year and Mr Watters says: “We have a very worrying situation. Road surface quality is important.”

In the future, road maintenance issues may be addressed by EuroRAP, says Mr Watters, as recommended risk-reducing measures were based on an assumption that no maintenance was required. “If road maintenance issues are not addressed then the issue will become significant in EuroRAP. We cannot have roads offering four-star protection if the surface quality and maintenance is only one star. We have to be four star on both. Road maintenance is outside of EuroRAP at the moment, but it need not stay outside for ever.”

EuroRAP received a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award in 2004

For more information, visit EuroRAP at: www.eurorap.org

The AA Motoring Trust at: www.aatrust.com