Fall in deaths on Essex Roads, states force

THE number of people killed on Essex’s roads has more than halved in the past decade, the force has said.

Fatalities have reduced steadily over the past ten years, although 41 killed in 2013, “is still too many”, the force’s head of road policing has said. The reductions have been put down to joint working from officers and Essex County Council who carried out a record number of operations last year. 

Of those killed on Essex’s roads in 2013, 16 were drivers, six passengers, 5 motorcyclists, 11 pedestrians and three were cyclists. This was a reduction on deaths in 2012 when 43 people were killed – 11 drivers, five passengers, 16 motorcyclists, one pillion passenger, seven pedestrians and three cyclists.

Ch Insp Rachel Nolan, head of roads policing at Essex, said: “A large number, if not all, road deaths are avoidable so my roads policing officers and the council’s road safety officers encourage everyone from drivers to cyclists and from pedestrians to motorcyclists to act in a more responsible manner.

“The running of dedicated town-based operations to target careless driving, mobile telephone abuse, drink-driving, seatbelt offending driver tiredness is paying off through both enforcement and education.”

The majority of road deaths and injuries can be largely blamed on three factors: driving too fast for the conditions or speed limit, failing to wear seatbelts and driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, she said.

Chief Inspector Nolan added: “Our efforts to educate motorcyclists and other road users paid off last year with a significant and pleasing reduction in rider fatalities. We will continue with our work, but also need to focus on car and lorry drivers as well as pedestrians, and we will do so not only with the county council but also with the DVLA, VOSA and Highways Agency.

“We are continuing to apply this joined-up approach to reducing road deaths and the signs are encouraging, especially if you look back at the figures a decade ago in Essex when we were dealing with 80-100 people dying in the county after being involved in a collision.”