Agenda item

Road Safety in Lancashire

Minutes:

Clare Platt, Head of Service – Health, Equity, Welfare and Partnerships introduced Jackie Brindle, Safe and Healthy Travel Manager, Daniel Herbert, Group Manager Highways, Andy Trotter, Inspector from Lancashire Constabulary and Dave Russel, Assistant Chief Fire Officer to the Committee.

 

Clare Platt summarised the key road safety issues in Lancashire as outlined in the report and identified the actions being taken by Lancashire County Council and partners to reduce the number of road casualties in Lancashire.

 

The Cabinet Committee noted that Lancashire County Council was a partner of, and worked closely with, the Lancashire Road Safety Partnership which was established on a pan Lancashire geography, including the local

authority areas of Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool Councils.  In particular, the Partnership worked to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured (KSI) on the roads of Lancashire, including the motorway network.

 

The Department for Transport (DfT) had suggested that there was no single underlying factor in KSI casualties but that there were a number of influences including the distance people were travelling; volume and transport modes; behaviour of drivers, riders and pedestrians; the mix of groups of road users and external factors such as the weather.

 

Clare reported the trends in pedestrian KSI casualties, car occupant KSI casualties and Powered 2 Wheel KSI casualties, and provided information on who the casualties tended to be, where in Lancashire the casualties were happening, and the time of year and day when the casualties were occurring.

 

The most common factor contributing to KSI casualties was 'failed to properly look', although, as detailed above, there was often more than one contributory factor in each collision.

 

It was reported that the 20mph limits were generally supported by residents and drivers, and that they had had a positive influence for children and pedestrians.  National research had been commissioned into the effectiveness of 20mph areas and the interim results had been presented to the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety.  The Key provisional findings from the national study were outlined and it was noted that the final report was expected before the end of the year.

 

A link had been provided in the report to the 'Towards Zero Lancashire: Road Safety Strategy for Lancashire' which was a partnership response to improving road safety.

 

Jackie Brindle informed the Cabinet Committee of a number of interventions taking place to reduce road casualties of all ages and road user types.  A huge part of safety intervention was an annual programme of engineering interventions targeting collision hot spots.  Five routes in Lancashire had been identified by the Road Safety Foundation as being included within the fifty most dangerous local roads in England, and £175m of funding over a four year period was being provided by the DfT to improve the conditions of these roads.  Bids from Highway Authorities were due for submission at the end of September 2017. 

 

Excessive speed had been identified as one of the factors contributing to KSI collisions in Lancashire and locations were prioritised for mobile speed enforcement.

 

There were a significant amount of complaints from members of the public in relation to excessive speeding and illegal/inappropriate parking around schools. 

 

The Committee noted that the month with the highest cumulative KSI casualties was July, and that most casualties occurred between 3.00pm and 6.00pm.

 

In relation to mobile phone use, cameras in the mobile enforcement vehicles were now very technical, enabling mobile phone users to be detected, along with those not wearing seatbelts.  Andy Trotter confirmed that anybody caught using a mobile phone whilst driving now would automatically get 6 points on their licence and a fine.  If it was then proved that using a mobile phone was a contributory factor in a collision, then the phone would be seized and subjected to forensic examination.  Dave Russel confirmed that the Fire Service were continuing to educate young people on non mobile phone use.  County Councillor Iddon was pleased with the positive approach being taken and the measure to reduce casualties and wished to thank the partners involved in carrying out this work.

 

The Safe Drive, Stay Alive presentation which covered the real life consequences of taking risks on the roads and gave young people an insight into the experiences of police, fire, ambulance and bereaved family members had been delivered to 13,000 college age young people.  Andrew Trotter invited Committee members to the next presentation running on the 19th and 20th September at 10.00am and 1.30pm at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. 

 

Resolved:  That the actions being undertaken to reduce casualties on Lancashire roads be endorsed by the Cabinet Committee.

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