Agenda item

(Report by Head of Network Management)

(1)     The crash records for 2007 for Kent were finalised in May.  The totals were used in establishing best value performance indicators, government targets and establishing trends.  In 2007, 91 people were killed on roads in Kent (excluding Medway), 632 received serious injuries and 5743 were slightly injured.  There were 4779 crashes.  Appendix 1 of the report showed crashes and casualties by severity for 2007.

(2)     To help focus on achieving continuous improvement in road safety the Government had set a national target for reducing casualties by 2010. Compared with the 1994-98 average the target was:-

·               A 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents (KSI) – KCC as part of PSA2 intended to achieve this target by the end of 2007

·               A 50% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured.

·               A 10% reduction in the slight casualty rate expressed as the number of people slightly injured per 100 million vehicle kilometres (MVKm). Kent did not have a traffic model appropriate for KCC roads. Therefore a simple 10% reduction in slight casualties had been used to set targets in Kent.

(3)     Compared with the 2010 target KSI, casualties on Kent roads (including motorways and trunk roads) were within ½ % of the 2010 target and at target, rounded to the whole number it was the 40% target. Child KSI casualties had exceeded the 2010 target. Slight casualties showed a reduction of 3.5 %.  Appendix 3 of the report showed that on the roads for which KCC was responsible, the KSI 2010 targets had been exceeded. 

(4)     From Appendix 5 of the report it could be seen that the 47 child KSI casualties in 2005 appeared to have been an exceptionally low year.  It demonstrated the variable nature of year on year totals as shown on the trend graph from 1994 for child KSI casualties, although the overall trend was downward.

(5)     The 2007 total KSI casualties on Kent roads showed a 3.2 % reduction compared with 2005. KSI casualties on the roads for which KCC was responsible, however, had a 4.8% increase compared with 2006; despite this there was a 41.8% reduction compared with the 94-98 average on KCC roads.   The overall trend might be flattening out or even increasing.   The casualties on the Highway Agency’s roads in 2007, however, showed a 27.1% decrease. The 2007 figure was consistent with the overall trend and 2006 might have been an abnormally high year for casualties on the HA roads.

(6)     2007 slight casualties on Kent roads had shown a less than 1 % reduction compared with 2006.  Slight casualties on roads for which KCC were responsible had shown  a 4.6 % increase  although  the 2007 figure compared with 2005 showed a 5.5% reduction, and, compared with the 1994-98 average there had been a 7.7% reduction.  This reflected the volatile nature of slight casualties.

(7)     Overall KCC‘s performance was good, as the 2010 KSI targets had been achieved. The trends in casualties showed a well established downward pattern albeit that it did now appear to be flattening out.  The challenge over the next 3 years, 2008 to 2010, was to maintain and better the government’s targets.  It was vital that we continued to deliver programmes of work aimed at both improving the road infrastructure and road user behaviour.  In addition to this, to achieve a down turn in the figures the casualty reduction links fostered with the Highway Agency, Police, Fire and Rescue and the other partners must be further developed into strongly focused measures aimed at influencing the road user across the County. The developed partnership working activities on the strategic network needed to be extended to the local network. It should however be noted that despite a co-ordinated approach to reducing casualties, those targets were outside the direct control of this highway authority, as the daily decisions of each and every road user of Kent would affect the outcome. This target could therefore still be missed in 2010 because of random fluctuation and circumstances outside the control of the highway authority

(8)     The Board noted the report.