How do I get accident statistics on a specific road?

[DJFridge]

Vaguely related to embee's thread I suppose http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=170479 but anyway...

One of our local roads does have a bit of a reputation for accidents and there is apparently going to be a "meeting of Councillors" about reducing the limit from the current NSL to 40mph. The thing is that the generally held wisdom locally is that most of the accidents are local youths racing their hatchbacks at night, rather than the road being inherently dangerous. However, how do I go about finding out of that is actually true? Who holds the statistics and how do I get them?

[Nikkih]

The police and Local Authority hold the collision data.

I don't know if they would give them to you though. All Welsh Local Authorities have to review ALL speed limits and implement any changes by 2014 as directed by the Welsh Government, I don't know if the same thing is happening in England. I'm guessing it may be with the threads appearing on here. As part of this review process the collision data for the section of road being reviewed is looked at.

I know you can make Freedom of Information requests to LAs and Police Forces. Don't know if they would be able to give out collision data though. Might be worth a go. They may not give you al the data but may be able to tell you if they consider it to be a particular problem such as young drivers racing at night.

[Captain Nemo]

ask the highway authority responsible for Accident data under a freedom of information request, be aware that they have response times for these you might not be able to get the info quickly, it may be easier to find a name at the highway authority, give them a call and just ask, theres no sensible reason why the information would be denied.

the information provided will be quite easy to interpret, it wil give the age sex and number of people in vehicles etc, but no names, it will give you factors involved, eg, darkness, road conditions, street lighting, whether skidding is involved etc. ite east enough to work out when you seen them

you could also ask for KSI figures (killed seriously injured) as these are generally what we use to decide whether intervention is required, KSI have a weighting allocated, say K=10, SI=4, minor injury=1 etc, the more points the more chance something needs looking at

if you dont know who the highway authority is just google, "who is responsible for roads in XXXXXX"

im a Highways Engineer, if you want any more advice or info drop me a PM.

Mark

[MisterTommyH]

It depends whether it's a road under HA's control or not - They are only responsible for major trunk roads.

If its not them, then it will be looked after by the Highways Department at the local council. Even they will have to ask the police.

We recently developed an estate where traffic calming was on the 'wish list' of the residents and the housing authority - Just because they thought it would be a good way of spending some of the 'added value' cash they had to spend on the scheme. Turns out that there were not many recorded incidents of accidents or speeding on the road despite the residents perception. The council would not let us install traffic calming as, after a year, they would be responsible for it and would have to maintain it - It would have been a drain on their budget and they didn't see the need for it.

[sv4me]

Interesting post. The exact same situation you have described has arisen near where my father lives, brought on by the death of a cyclist

Read here http://www.osadvertiser.co.uk/news/ormskirk-news/2011/07/21/asmall-lane-residents-campaign-to-reduce-the-speed-limit-after-the-death-of-a-cyclist-on-the-road-80904-29088722/

The article says the residents have compiled a report. Not exactly an impartial view :rolleyes: and 7 serious accidents in 10 years doesnt exactly sound like desperate measures are needed to me. Cap Nemo would be a better judge though

This is simply IMHO. The residents don't like living on a NSL road and are trying to use the public interest after the death to get the limit lowered. If they don't like trying to negotiate onto the road in the mornings when the traffics doing 60, they shouldnt have fecking moved there. It has been NSL for as long as we've lived there, and thats 25 years. The road is generally not dangerous in the slightest, any competent driver should be able to take it at 60mph.

The real reason why the poor cyclist lost her life? 2 cars racing each other, 1 :toss: was on the wrong side of the road overtaking and hit her head on. Speed limit isn't the issue, dangerous driving is

[Captain Nemo]

i think 7 serious accidents in 10 years would get the highway authorities attention, thats if they were recorded verifiable incidents, local knowledge by a pressure group wouldnt cut much i dont think,

its tragic when fatalities happen on the road, but they arent always easily solved by engineering solutions, dangerous drivers dont pay much attention to increased signing and such like, its not simply a case of banging a new speed limit in and hoping for the best, authorities generally wont just change a speed limit without seriously considering physical enigneering methods too, like priority gateways and such, these restrict available road width and available parking, so residents quite often kick off when they realise that to engineer the speed down they need an island with an illuminated bollard right outside their gates.

Near my home a school girl was hit and killed on a 40mph section with a short dual carriageway not far from a school, the residents petioned, got a lot of local and press support and the authority has now made the road single carriageway by putting in build outs, so now the traffic queues in the morning and am peak and kids are crossing the road wherever they think is now safe instead of using the crossing, now to me the risk of kids running in and out of standing or stop start traffic is much more dangerous than the previous situation where it turns out the driver was prosectuted for dangerous driving and his speed was only a contributing factor in the accident and possibly not the cause.

the public attach a lot to speed in accidents, when the reality is that excessive speed is often not the cause of an accident, it makes the consequences worse of course, but in a lot of cases there are far more serious mistakes made by drivers which cause an incident, many drivers just dont have the skills required to control a 2 ton vehicle in an emergency and dont consider this when they drive like twunts

[DJFridge]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Nemo, as a Highway Engineer, you'd love this particular road. It's main problems are these:

1) it makes up part of the local "I've got a sicker car than you innit, mine's got well fat alloys, you is a p*ssy" racetrack. During the day, there are so many tractors and artics on it that it's frequently only possible to do 40mph through most of it anyway. At night, it's a lovely twisty road with changes in camber and altering corner radii that make it a pleasure to ride or drive. Which is, of course, why the local ****s race on it.

2) it has vast numbers of 30-odd ton supermarket artics, taking produce to and from the various greenhouses and distribution centres along the road. Unfortunately, the road has never been upgraded structurally so it's a mess with rapid changes in surface condition.

IMHO, the road does not need the speed limit lowered. It wouldn't be enforceable anyway. If it was properly rebuilt and the local farmers actually had to clean up their muddy deposits, it would be a much safer road than it has become.

Wifey has just had a thought as well. If the limit is lowered, does the frequency with which the local farmers have to clean up their mud decrease?

[DJFridge]

OK, discovered yesterday that the meeting of the West Sussex CC Highways sub-committee was going to be today.Managed to cobble together a (hopefully) half-decent letter and emailed it through for consideration by the committee. I know it got there and I had an email back from somebody in Highways saying that they were taking a copy with them to the meeting so at least I know I've done what I can.

Interestingly, I discovered that one of the local Councillors pushing for the speed limit reduction is "Director Of Farming" for one of the main culprits in the increased HGV traffic. We've always joked locally that the farm in question must have a councillor in it's pocket in order to have got planning permission for a massive distribution centre on such an unsuitable road. Well, we were close!