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Improved 30mph speed limit adherence has reduced pedestrian deaths23 July 2011by Peter Tait We have reported recently that the public are worried about children's road safety next to their homes. Even at a legal speed of 30mph there is a 20% chance that a pedestrian will be killed in a collision with a vehicle but this risk rises sharply at higher speeds with a death rate of 80% at 40mph. At 20mph, the risk of a pedestrian fatality is an eighth of the 30mph death rate at 2.5% which is why many road safety experts have called for a reduction of the speed limit in residential areas. However, road deaths have been falling overall (see the DfT figure below), and this has been associated with the public observing the speed limit in urban areas 
more often. Statistics show that in 1998, 69% of cars were driven at
speeds above the speed limit in 30mph zones in 'free-flow conditions',
but by 2010 urban speeding had reduced to 46%. Looking at higher speeds, cars exceeding 40 mph in a 30 mph zone have dropped by 50% since 2003 and are now at 16%. Since 2006, the numbers of vehicles on all types of road have been falling, no doubt due to the increasing cost of motoring. Pedestrian deaths in 2005 were 671, falling to 405 in 2010, a fall of 40%. 96% of these pedestrian fatalities occurred on urban streets. Commenting on these figures, Neil Greig, Director of Policy and Research at the Institute of Advanced Motoring (IAM) has said: "A combination of consistent road safety messages, new road layouts and police enforcement appears to be paying road safety dividends for city people". However, as 71% of all road deaths are on rural roads, to which new drivers may have no exposure until after passing their test, this is an area where there is a worrying skills deficit. Indeed, that the risk of death drops so quickly after new drivers have had some additonal practice after their test (as shown in the figure below) confirms that improving driver skills, especially on rural roads, would reduce road deaths considerably. Contrary to popular belief, experience of driving has a greater impact on accident risk than the age of the  driver as the DfT explanatory notes (under
the figure on the right) show.The Government is well aware of this skills deficit for new driviers and has acted to try to address it by modifying the driving test and scrapping the Pass Plus in favour of new advanced driver training that provides a better degree of competence that it hopes car insurance providers will embrace and encourage via lowered premiums for those that have taken it. There are no plans to make such advanced driver training compulsary. The re-vamped driving test includes new video scenarios, the removal of prior knowledge of the route, unsupervised driving and the encouragement of driving instructors to witness the test in order to assist in making good the skills and knowledge deficits of those that fail. However, these and other measures, that are part of the Government's 'Strategic Framework for Road Safety' have been criticised for their lack of ambition in not aiming to reduce road deaths by 50% by 2020, in line with the EU target. |
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