Cornwall LTP1 Delivery Report - July 2006

In accordance with our Local Road Safety Strategy, we will seek to deliver a reduction in the number of people killed and seriously injured in road accidents and restrain slight casualties, through an accident and casualty reduction programme.

 We have implemented our accident and casualty reduction programme with the following results: 

• Number of people killed and seriously injured, 40% reduction by 2010 - on target

• Number of children killed or seriously injured, 50% reduction by 2010 - on target
• Total number of road casualties, no increase by 2010 - on target

We have implemented over 700 individual projects  taking safety as a major priority. This has been linked to other complementary road safety initiatives, such as  education, training and publicity and enforcement, as described in the following sections. 

Local safety schemes results are also tabulated in Appendix D.

We are on track with the core indicators and  whilst the total number of casualties target is not currently on line, we are confident that this will be achieved by the target year at the end of the LTP2.  In the past two years, we have completely reviewed Road Casualty Reduction Strategy and have sought to establish those areas that have the greatest potential for improvement.  This has been based on benchmarking our performance against other shire counties using Audit Commission data. The result is the Cornwall Casualty Reduction Strategy which highlights all aspects of casualty reduction activity and uses an evidence-led approach to identify where resources should be targeted for the next five years.

The Strategy identifies the need for a new approach and advocates route interventions on a multi-disciplinary basis rather than  single site engineering led programmes.  It proposes such interventions based on an analysis of all casualties and also specifically targeted interventions based on motorcyclist casualties alone.  The ten priority routes for each category are listed within the strategy. (the LTP2 Section 7.6.3). Further local safety schemes results are given in Appendix D.

We will seek to promote child safety and more sustainable journeys to school through education, training and publicity, and engineering measures.

Both the Safer Routes programme and Travel to School Initiative (School Travel plans) have had the dual aims of improving safety and promoting sustainable travel. Whilst there has been success in achieving modal shift at some schools (as detailed in the Travelling to School - Section 7.5 below) there has also been a significant change in the rate of pupil casualties: in 1998 there were 36 and in 2004, there were just 22. Given that there are around 140,000 pupil trips each day, these figures are very low.

Originally framed within the Road Safety Strategy, travelling to school is now a strategy in its own right. The safety aims remain, as do the day to day links between the  Road Safety and Travel Awareness teams, but the emphasis is on sustainable travel and accessibility. 

We will seek to promote safety through a planned and integrated community education, training and publicity programme.

Our Education, Training and Publicity (ETP) team delivers the road safety message to the public using a wide range of techniques and campaigns.  Education resources, training programmes and publicity campaigns are developed through consultation, advice and contributions from a variety of professionals and agencies including education advisers, teachers, the Police, Health Promotions Unit, Probation Service, and other Community Safety partners as well as through the use of focus groups for specific issues e.g. teenage pedestrians.   National campaigns are supported locally ensuring added value from DfT input in Cornwall.

In addition, casualty statistics were analysed in order to develop a targeted programme of ETP.  Seven distinct road user groups were identified with links to the key LTP1 issues (e.g. Children, Road Safety at work, disadvantaged, etc.). Each of these was subdivided, usually by age banding in order that initiative were designed that were particularly relevant to the target group for implementation in accordance with statistical priority.

 A very condensed digest of people reached through our LTP1 activity is given below:

• Car Drivers -1,980 people through direct contact, plus awareness raising via 42 campaigns,
• Young Drivers  - 1,262 people through direct contact, plus awareness raising via 35 campaigns,
• Car passengers – 6,865  people through direct contact, plus awareness raising via 10 campaigns,
• Motorcyclists – 359 people through direct contact, plus awareness raising via 14 campaigns,
• Pedestrians -1,622 people through direct contact, plus awareness raising via 12 campaigns,
• Child Pedestrians -19,009 people through direct contact, plus awareness raising via 36 campaigns,
• Cyclists – 3,609 people through direct contact, plus awareness raising via 23 campaigns.

Since establishing the Cornwall Casualty Reduction Strategy, programmes of work have continued, been re-designed or newly created to begin the process of targeting our priority groups and accident hotspots.

Our activities have reached our target audiences through direct education and/or training schemes, indirect education and training by ‘down-trained’ professionals using our resources and via media coverage, targeted poster/leaflet/bus backs/car park ticket campaigns and awareness raising events.

The combination of these activities and initiatives has meant we have reached each of our seven target road user groups. However, development work is still in progress for a number of the sub groups within each of these road user categories, e.g. 10 -14 yr old pedestrians and cyclists, and older drivers and pedestrians.

Evaluation of level of learning, attitude and behaviour takes place as an integral part of all our direct contact activities.  Our records indicate that, particularly in the case of car drivers attending Defensive Driver Training through  Management Occupational Road Risk Policy, our input improves understanding of the need for safe road user attitude and provides the recipients with the skills to translate this into safer driving behaviour.   

In association with the Police and other enforcement agencies, we will seek to maintain an adequate level of enforcement of traffic laws and regulation in support of road safety aims.

Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership – comprises of the Police, Cornwall County Council, the Council of the Isles of Scilly, Devon and Cornwall Prosecution Service, Highways Agency, Her Majesty’s Courts Service, National Health Service Trusts, Plymouth City Council, Torbay Council.  The aim of this group is casualty reduction.  Its key message is that slowing down prevents casualties while speed destroys lives.

Since the Partnership was set up in 2000, the deployment of both fixed and mobile cameras influenced a significant reduction in collisions and casualties.  Results of the Four Year Government National Study on the impact of safety cameras shows a 67.5% reduction in the number of KSI’s in Devon and Cornwall compared with the national average of 42%. Casualty numbers have reduced by 30.7% in Devon and Cornwall compared with the national average of 22%. The Partnership will continue to build on these successes achieved and integrate safety camera enforcement into other road safety areas.

The Standing Committee On Traffic and Safety (SCOTS)  comprises of senior officers from the Police, Cornwall County Council, Devon County Council, Plymouth City Council, Torbay Council and the Highways Agency.  The group discusses strategic issues of road safety and traffic management, with the aim of reducing the number and severity of road casualties, improving traffic flow and to enhance the economic well being of the peninsula.

In association with health, emergency services, social and welfare partners, we will seek to ensure that the impact of road traffic accidents on health and other services is minimised.

The Cornwall Road Casualty Reduction Group brings together all parties interested in Casualty Reduction.  Police, Fire, Health, Adult Care, as well as our Highway Engineers and Education, Training and Publicity professionals.  The Devon and Cornwall Safety Camera Partnership, the District Councils and Radio Cornwall are also represented.

We have also established a motorcycle forum that has been fully involved in advising the intervention team on their perception of why motorcyclists appear to have problems in certain locations.  The Community Safety Partnership is in the process of equipping two police motorcycles with video recording and data logging equipment in order to provide high quality base information for this process.

As mentioned above, the Casualty Reduction Group has been instrumental in developing the Cornwall Casualty Reduction Strategy.