Road traffic collisions

A road traffic collision is an incident involving a vehicle, where a road user is injured and it reported to the Police within 30 days. Cyclists, pedestrians, motorcyclists are particularly vulnerable and are a priority for us.

Categories of injury

Fatal injury - where someone dies in less than 30 days as a result of the crash, not natural causes or suicide.

Serious injury - this is where medical treatment is required eg fracture, internal injury, severe cuts, crushing. This is also used when a casualty dies 30 or more days after the crash from injuries sustained in that crash.

Slight Injury - casualties who do not require medical treatment eg sprains, whiplash, bruises, slight cuts, slight shock.

Improving safety

The average value of prevention per injury collision, (or cost to society per collision) is approximately £70,000 (source: Road Casualties Great Britain 2006 & Highways Economic Note No.1).

Our current method of identifying sites where remedial safety works may take place, is by first identifying where at least 5 injury collisions (of any severity) have occurred within a 40m radius, in the last 3 years. These collisions are then ranked by a 3,3,1 weighting for fatal, serious and slight to ensure that we are addressing the sites with the highest level of KSIs.

After investigation we make any small changes that would help eg fresh white lines or signs. Bigger projects are considered by the Cabinet Member and Local Committees within the context of the whole county and budget.