Death toll prompts road safety drive

Cabinet papers released this week said that although progress had been made, the number of people killed or seriously injured in 2006, at 464, was significantly above a milestone target of 409.

Now council leader Cllr Henry Smith has authorised extra spending of 320,000, with the aim of boosting educational programmes designed to influence driver behaviour.

A cabinet report said the risk of taking no action was that more people would be killed and seriously hurt, and that the target would not be achieved '“ which meant that potentially up to 3m of 'performance reward' grant would be lost.

The county council's strategy was to refocus its efforts in engineering, continuing to support the police in enforcement activity, and to expand the use of education and behavioural change interventions.

"While engineering and enforcement actions continue to reduce casualties at specific locations, further investment in changing road user behaviour is considered as vital," it added. "Without such further investment, there is little prospect of meeting the target."

Research had shown that activities aimed at education which created behavioural change could influence up to 90 per cent of casualties, because human error was a principal cause of 90 per cent of road casualties.

"Additional funding is urgently needed to promote road safety awareness through education, training and campaigns targeted at the high risk road users," said the report.

Key target groups including pedestrians, young people as drivers and cyclists and motor-cyclists were already being partly addressed by existing activity, including 'bikesafe' and a planned moped safety campaign.

Proposals for the extra cash included increased spending on the 'safe drive, stay alive' campaign, a young drivers' training course, a 'don't be a loser' campaign, and pre-driver education aimed at promoting risk awareness in schools.

Continuing support for a joint campaign backed by Sussex police directed at the risks and penalties attached to mobile phone use by drivers is planned.

The new allocation also includes 45,000 for extra staffing to deliver the expansion.