§ Mr. Wrigglesworthasked the Secretary of State for Transport (1) how many road injury accidents and deaths result from accidents involving concrete columns, tubular steel columns and sheet steel columns;
(2) if he will publish the percentage of fatal and injury accidents, respectively, which involved fixed obstacles in each of the last five years;
(3) of the total fatal and injury accidents involving fixed obstacles, what percentage related to lighting columns, respectively, in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. HoramI regret that the information is not available in the precise form requested. The following information is available:
§ Mr. Wrigglesworthasked the Secretary of State for Transport what evidence he has that sheet steel columns cause less damage in accidents than concrete or tubular steel columns.
§ Mr. HoramI have evidence that there is likely to be less damage to a vehicle, and possibly its occupants, if it collides with a sheet steel column rather than concrete or tubular steel columns. I do not have any evidence to show that there would be an overall reduction in damage if sheet steel columns are used exclusively 453W bearing in mind that there could be a greater risk of secondary accidents when vehicles collide with these columns as compared with concrete or tubular steel columns.
§ Mr. Wrigglesworthasked the Secretary of State for Transport what was the most recent research carried out by his Department into the influence of roadside obstacles on road safety and traffic accidents.
§ Mr. HoramThe Transport and Road Research Laboratory has a continuing programme of analysis of traffic accidents, and roadside obstacles are a factor in some of these.
§ Mr. Wrigglesworthasked the Secretary of State for Transport, in adopting the British Standards Institute standards for lighting columns, whether the different degrees of damage to vehicles caused by different materials and methods of construction were taken into account.
§ Mr. HoramNo, for, although it is known which column materials cause the least damage to vehicles colliding with them, it is not known what effect the various types of column have in causing secondary accidents.
§ Mr. Wrigglesworthasked the Secretary of State for Transport if the national accident report form now includes road signs, bridge parapets and trees amongst those items recorded as being involved in severe accidents.
§ Mr. HoramOn the new accident report form, road signs, trees, and the roofs and sides of bridges are recorded; parapets are not separately identified. In 1978, 14 out of the 51 police forces in Great Britain introduced the new report form and most other forces are making the change in 1979.