South Gloucestershire | Archive | 2005 | October | 14
From the archive, first published Friday 14th Oct 2005.
REDUCING the number of road accidents is the aim of a new partnership between police and South Gloucestershire Council.
The council's road safety team and traffic police in the district have joined forces in a bid to cut the number of people killed or injured on roads in the area.
More than £20,000 is being made available to fund extra patrols at identified accident sites, such as certain areas on the Avon Ring Road.
Alan Hale, the council's senior road safety officer, said: "Our main purpose is to prevent death and injury on the roads and we can start to do that by education and training. Our other means of accident reduction are through traffic management, supported by enforcement and that's where the police come in."
A double-crewed patrol car will work at locations recognised as "accident cluster" sites. The patrols will also be available to address problems such as the abuse of prohibited turns, enforcing the high occupancy vehicle lane, and other offences.
Inspector Martin King, of Almondsbury Road Policing Unit, said: "We always work closely with our partners in South Gloucestershire Council's road safety team and welcome this opportunity to increase our presence on the roads in addition to our regular patrols."
The partnership will help the council to work towards the national casualty reduction targets as well as to continue to deliver on its own promise to reduce road casualties.
The Government and locally adopted target is to reduce killed and seriously injured casualty numbers by 40 percent by 2010.
The council is also aiming to reduce the number of children killed and seriously injured by 50 percent compared with the 1994 to 1998 averages.
Mr Hale added: "In 2004 there were encouraging signs that roads in the district continue to be a safe place. Last year there were eight fatalities - the lowest number since South Gloucestershire became a unitary authority in 1996.
"But this is still eight too many and we are committed to ensuring these numbers keep coming down."
The number of killed and seriously injured children on South Gloucestershire's roads was also the lowest since 1996 at seven.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008