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Final Maidstone JTB casualties July12 (2)

To:                               Maidstone Joint Transportation Board

By:                               Tim Read, Head of Highways & Transportation

Date:                            18th July 2012

Subject:                       Road casualties in the Maidstone borough

Classification:              For Information

 

Summary: This is an overview of road crash casualties in 2010 for the Maidstone borough and provides insight into Kent County Council’s approach to delivering casualty reduction.

 

 

Background

 

  1. From 2000 to 2010, in Kent there has been a 54% reduction in Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) casualties (greatest reduction in the South East). In this time Maidstone has had a reduction in KSIs of 50%.

 

  1. In 2010, the most recent available data, casualties were:

Kent                        55 fatal   490 serious                           5257 slight

Maidstone               4 fatal     46 serious                             509 slight

 

  1. Maidstone consistently records the highest number of personal injury crashes across all districts in Kent.  In 2010 Maidstone recorded the highest number of KSI casualties (50); the second highest district was Canterbury (49).

 

Road casualty profile for Maidstone

 

  1. KCC has commissioned casualty reports for each of the 12 Community Safety Partnerships (CSP), to support local Strategic Assessment and Planning.  The following information is taken from the Maidstone CSP report (Appendix 1) and covers the 5 years from 2006 to 2010, unless specified.

 

  1. Similar to Kent, the main casualty reduction priorities for Maidstone are:
    1. Car Drivers particular emphasis on those aged 17-21
    2. Powered 2 Wheelers (P2W):

                                                               i.      16 year old moped riders

                                                              ii.      17 - 24 year old riders on all bike types

                                                            iii.      25-29 & 35-39 year old riders on bikes greater than 500cc.

    1. Pedestrians particular emphasis on those aged 11 - 16

 

  1. Of drivers/riders involved in KSI crashes in the borough, 53% had Maidstone borough home postcodes.  The next highest were “Outside of Kent” (12%), Medway (9%), Tonbridge & Malling (7%), Swale (6%) and Ashford (5%).

 

  1. The peak for road crashes is the ‘early morning’ and ‘evening’ peak traffic flow times; weekdays 8am – 9am and 3pm – 8pm

 

  1. According to ‘contributory factors’ completed by the attending Police Officer, Driver/Rider Error and Behaviour are significant causation factors in the majority of KSI crashes.

 

  1. KCC carries out its ‘cluster site analysis’ to identify locations that consistently appear in crash data.  This informs the Crash Remedial Measures (CRM) process and is reported through JTB.  Additionally, the roads with the highest crash numbers are:

A229, A26, A20, A249 and A274 (KCC)

M2 and M20 (Highways Agency)

 

  1. Key road user group KSIs for the last 3 years (2008-2010):

2008                       2009                       2010       District average

Car occupants        38                           29                           16                         17

Young Driver          29                           14                           10                         10

P2W                         16                           14                           20                         10

Pedestrians            16                            8                              7                           9

Cyclist                       4                              2                              5                           4

Child                         3                              5                              2                           4

 

Action to reduce road casualties

 

  1. Casualty reduction work is often referred to as ‘The 3 E’s’ – Education, Engineering and Enforcement.  KCC delivers Engineering and Education, the later in partnership with Kent Fire and Rescue Service.  Appendix 1 includes an outline of the core casualty reduction activities delivered by ‘The 3 E’s’.

 

  1. KCC’s road safety team delivers three functions; education, training and publicity (Appendix 2).  Publicity is used to provide strategic casualty reduction leadership through raising awareness, increasing knowledge, setting out core safety concerns and promoting key behaviours.  Local education and training work consolidates these key messages and develops personal meaning for those who take part.  It is these activities that benefit from partnering approaches to reach the widest audience.

 

  1. Maidstone is frequently the focus for KCC publicity activity and associated public engagement.  It is also a high priority area for the targeting of KCC education work in schools.  However, although interventions are offered to schools, it is up to individual Head teachers as to whether they take them up.

 

Member action

 

  1. Members are asked to:
    1. consider the current Maidstone borough casualty profile.
    2. note current activity levels (Appendix 1 and 2)
    3. support the on-going need for casualty reduction work

______________________________________________________________

 

Background documents:

Appendix 1 - Maidstone District Road Safety Profile, summary document

Appendix 2 - KCC Road Safety team’s education, training and publicity plan, 2012/13

For further information please see “Review of personal injury crashes occurring on Kent roads in 2010” – www.kent.gov.uk, and search ‘crash data’

 

Contact officer: Steve Horton

Tel: 08458 247800