§ Dr. MurrisonTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what percentage of(a) road accidents and (b) fatal road accidents occurred on minor single-carriageway roads in each of the past 20 years. [68226]
§ Mr. JamiesonThe percentage of personal injury road accidents and of fatal road accidents on public roads in Great Britain which occurred on single-carriageway roads of B classification or below was as shown in the following table.
809W
All injury accidents Fatal accidents 1981 42 34 1982 46 36 1983 47 36 1984 47 35 1985 46 34 1986 46 33 1987 46 34 1988 46 34 1989 45 34 1990 46 35 1991 46 35 1992 46 36 1993 45 35 1994 45 35 1995 45 36 1996 46 36 1997 45 35 1998 45 36 1999 45 35 2000 44 36 2001 45 35
§ Mr. WigginTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans the Government have to reduce the number of road accidents. [68524]
§ Mr. JamiesonThe Government's wide-ranging road safety strategy is set out in "Tomorrow's roads—safer for everyone", published in March 2000. The strategy is aimed at delivering three road casualty reduction targets by 2010—each compared with the average for 1994 to 1998:
- a 40 per cent. reduction in deaths and serious injuries;
- a 50 per cent. reduction in child deaths and serious injuries; and
- a 10 per cent. reduction in the rate (by vehicles kilometres) of serious injuries.
§ Mr. WigginTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if the Government will commission a study to investigate ways of reducing the number of road accidents. [68474]
§ Mr. JamiesonMy Department continues to commission a substantial amount of road and vehicle safety research into the many and various causes of accidents to inform our road safety strategy. A synopsis of recently completed and on-going projects, as well as new research, may be found in its publications
Road safety research: Compendium of projects 2001–02Vehicle standards and engineering research: Compendium of projects 2001–02.Copies of each publication have been placed in the Libraries of the House.
§ Mr. Marshall-AndrewsTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the trend of(a) fatalities and (b) child fatalities in traffic accidents in residential areas over the period 1997 to 2001. [67432]
§ Mr. JamiesonThe numbers of fatalities on residential roads are shown in the following table. For this purpose, residential roads are defined as those with a speed limit of 40 mph or less and where street lighting is present.
Fatalities from accidents on residential roads: Great Britain Child Adult All1 1997 137 1,190 1,327 1998 110 1,125 1,237 1999 115 1,162 1,285 2000 116 1,142 1,264 20012 132 1,109 1,252 1 Includes age not reported. 2 Provisional.
§ Ms BuckTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of research by the IPPR showing that children from socially excluded backgrounds are more likely to be involved in road collisions than children from other socio-economic groups; and what plans he has to take action to reduce road collisions affecting these children. [67494]
§ Mr. JamiesonWe are aware of the work of the Institute of Public Policy Research in researching child pedestrian casualties and, while they have yet to report, know their preliminary findings.
Our own research had already drawn similar conclusions. When the Road Safety Strategy, "Tomorrow's Roads—Safer for Everyone", was published in March 2000, it included challenging targets to reduce killed and 810W seriously injured road casualties by 40 per cent. by 2010. Recognising the particular issue of child casualties, there is a specific, more stretching target, to reduce child killed and seriously injured casualties by 50 per cent. in the same time period. The strategy acknowledged that children in the lowest socio-economic group (SEG) are five times more likely to be killed as pedestrians than their higher SEG counterparts.
Since child pedestrian casualties are a particular problem, we have begun a child pedestrian training project, making £10 million available to local authorities over five years, to improve practical roadside training. Deprivation is a significant factor in deciding which authorities are selected for this scheme. The results will he fully evaluated. The issues which suggest why children from the lowest SEG may be more vulnerable generally are complex and we are continuing to research them.