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Essex Takes Lead in Reducing Accidents

Essex has seen dramatic success in saving lives and reducing accidents over the past two years with a fall of over a third (34%) following hard hitting public campaigns, stepped up intervention and enforcement, as well as tens of thousands of residents and young people given road safety advice at events and schools across the county.

Meanwhile, Essex’s groundbreaking A12 Patrols have been operational for a fortnight and have dealt with hundreds of incidents ranging from motorists who’ve run out of petrol to major accidents involving enabling an air ambulance to land on the carriageway. The patrols, believed to be the only local authority funded patrols of their kind in the UK were formed following a recommendation from Essex County Council’s A12 Inquiry.

The minister was briefed on Essex’s overall accident reduction strategy implemented by the Essex Casualty Reduction Board in July 2007 which has seen 339 serious fewer casualties occurring in the county of Essex annually, a fall of 34%.

Lord Adonis, Secretary of State for Transport

The past year activities which have taken place include:

* Community Wheels (providing road safety information including interactive driving instruction to 44,000 people)

* Speed Awareness course (attended by 7,356 people last year)

* DIS/RIDE (A driver and motorcyclist revision training scheme) which over 1190 people have taken.

* Engineering schemes to make roads safer

* Enforcement, including the issue of 7,456 fixed penalty tickets, the seizure of 316 vehicles and 153 arrests.

* High profile publicity and public engagement


Lord Adonis, Secretary of State for Transport, said: “Essex is really taking a lead in driving down road accidents and I am very impressed by their work."

“By bringing their individual efforts together the partners have been able to have a much greater impact in making the roads safer for Essex’s residents and visitors." 
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“I am also impressed by the recently launched A12 Patrols which are doing good work to improve safety and reduce delays on one of Essex’s busiest roads and commend Essex County Council and Essex Police on their efforts.”

Councillor Norman Hume, Cabinet Member for Highways and Transportation, and Chairman of the Essex Casualty Reduction Board, said: “We are making tremendous efforts to reduce road accidents in Essex and I am very pleased that the minister has recognised that through his visit today."

“In Essex, we are seeing deaths and serious injuries on our roads falling dramatically thanks to extremely close working between our partners on intervention, enforcement and education."

“I was also very pleased with the positive comments the minister made about our A12 Patrols, which are an initiative funded by Essex County Council to reduce delays and congestion, and are already having an impact in reducing delays for motorists using our busiest road.”