- Introduction
- Torbay's targets
- Casualty and collision data
- Fatalities
- Killed and Seriously Injured (KSI’s) (all age groups)
- Killed and seriously injured (0 to 15 age group)
- Slight injuries
- Planned road safety campaigns
- Planned expenditure of funding for road safety initiatives
- Previous reports
Introduction
This report highlights the road casualty and collision data for the Torbay area during the calendar year 2020. Torbay Council’s proposals for improving road safety for the next year are identified in the Road Safety Strategy 2017 - 2020, however, this report highlights in more detail the activities for 2020.
In should be noted that:
- There were no fatalities on Torbay roads in 2020, the first time since 2015.
In 2020 there was a reduction in the numbers of killed and seriously injured (KSI) casualties, showing a decrease in number since last year, dropping from 57 to 34. - After a decrease of one child killed and seriously injured casualties to a total of four in 2019, the results for 2020 show there has been a further decrease in the number since last year, from 4 to 1. Analysis shows that the casualty was a 10 year-old pedestrian, riding a Skateboard and who was in a collision with a car. There could be a number of reasons for this decrease, however the COVID-19 Pandemic, the closure of schools and the introduction of home schooling will have reduced the number of children using the network whilst travelling to and from school.
- The results also show slight injury casualties falling dramatically in 2020 by 58 from 245 to 187, a reduction of 24%. For the second year running no cyclists were injured in this age group, however we did record our first child e-scooter casualty, which took place on Christmas day.
- In the 2020 casualty figures there are two groups which have shown a marked increase in number, these being powered two-wheelers (e.g. motorcyclists) and cyclists, which have increased from 10% to 17% and 5% to 10% of the total number respectively. It should be noted that during the COVID-19 Pandemic, the closure of schools and the introduction of both home schooling and home working noticeably reduced the number of vehicles using the network. This increased road space may well have tempted more road users to switch their mode of transport from four wheels to two or increased their usage of such transport. Likewise, good weather and more spare time has encouraged riders to return to the roads and perhaps venture further afield.
Torbay's targets
In March 2000 the Government announced new targets for reducing casualties nationally. The targets are the percentage reductions to be achieved by 2010 compared with the average results for the base years, 1994 to 1998. The targets set by the Government were as follows:
- 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road crashes/collisions;
- 50% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured;
- 10% reduction in the slight casualty rate, expressed as the number of people slightly injured.
In 2011 and for the years ahead, it is the intention for the development and implementation of local road safety strategies to enhance road safety delivery by focussing on casualty reduction with objectives and targets to support that aim and programmes planned to achieve that, thus improving casualty reduction.
The development of a local road safety strategy is included within the new Local Transport Plan 3 (2011 – 2026), to ensure greater reductions in road casualties locally by:
- Encouraging better and co-ordinated working between local authorities and their partners;
- Enabling local authorities to consider their future priorities;
- Involving and informing the public.
Road Safety is of paramount importance to both us and the residents we serve. Road safety issues are wide ranging and sometimes complex, but we have a good record in improving road safety for all transport users. A mixture of on-line education, encouragement, enforcement and engineering alongside evaluation will be used to further improve the safety of all road users. The targeting of young drivers will continue via the ‘Learn 2 Live’ programme.
An evidence based approach to road safety engineering will be used in Torbay to identify and target investment where it is most needed. This will be led by the new Road Safety Strategy 2017-2020, which was approved by members of the Transport Working Party at their meeting on 12 October 2017 and which reflects the reduced staffing levels and resultant loss of the Road Safety Education Service. The new Road Safety Strategy reflects local road safety requirements, taking into account the most up-to-date Government recommendations, guidance, targets and strategy.
Unlike in the period up to 2010, the Department for Transport (DfT) have not set any targets for us to compare our results against. However the DfT published its Strategic Framework for Road Safety (May 2011) which is designed to help Government, local organisations and citizens to monitor the progress in improving road safety.
The DfT have identified 6 key indicators which relate to road deaths and will measure the key outcomes of the strategy at national level. These are:
- Number of road deaths (and rate per billion vehicle miles)
- Rate of motorcyclist deaths per billion vehicle miles
- Rate of car occupant deaths per billion vehicle miles
- Rate of pedal cyclist deaths per billion vehicle miles
- Rate of pedestrian deaths per billion miles walked
- Number of deaths resulting from collisions involving drivers under 25.
At a local level, such as here in Torbay, the number of road deaths is small and subject to fluctuation. For this reason the DfT propose the following as key indicators:
- Number of killed or seriously injured casualties
- Rate of killed or seriously injured casualties per million people
- Rate of killed or seriously injured casualties per billion vehicle miles
The progress will be reported annually, with details published in ‘Reported Road Casualties Great Britain’.
This will enable local authorities to consider their future priorities, whilst involving and informing the public of what action is taken. At a local level here in Torbay, we will also to continue to report casualty figures each year as part of the Road Casualty Reduction Report and the figures for the following categories can be found displayed in data section of this report.
- Fatal
- Killed and seriously injured
- Killed and seriously injured (0 – 15 years-old)
- Slightly injured
- Slightly injured (0 – 15 years old)
In Torbay’s Road Safety Strategy 2012 – 2020, six key areas were identified as priorities for Torbay.
- Pedestrian casualties
- Increased education for learner and young drivers
- Motorcycle casualties in particular young scooter riders and riders on larger sports bikes.
- Careless or dangerous road user behaviour
- Illegal and inappropriate us of speed.
Driving behaviour continues to be the main cause of road collisions and traditional engineering solutions will become more difficult to identify, more expensive and less effective in reducing casualties.
Targets
Over the 10 year period we intend to make reductions of:
- 25% to all KSI casualties
- 33% to collision casualties which are fatal, permanently disabled as a result, or where major medical care is required to prevent permanent disability or death.
- 10% to collisions resulting in Slight injuries
- 25% to collisions involving pedestrians
- 25% to casualties resulting from Powered Two Wheelers (PTW). The figures will take into account changes to levels of ownership of LA Registered PTW.
- 25% to all casualties resulting from collisions involving drivers/riders aged 17 to 24.
Using a 2012 baseline average of 2006 – 2010
Over the coming years Torbay, in line with our partners in the Peninsular Road Safety Partnership (shortly to be known as Vision Zero South West), will move towards the Vision Zero / Safe Systems approach to road safety with a target of providing a safe transport system, free from death and serious injury.
Safe Systems involves an important shift in approach from trying to prevent all collisions to preventing death and mitigating serious injury in road traffic collisions.
Safe System requires a proactive approach placing road safety in the mainstream of road traffic system planning, design and operation and use. Safe System interventions address common human errors (including seat belt use, alcohol and drug abuse) and human tolerance to injury thresholds and in so doing aims to address the road safety needs of non-motorised as well as motorised road users, younger and older users, male and female users.
Safe System has five pillars of action:
- Safe Road Use;
- Safe vehicles;
- Safe speeds;
- Safe roads and roadsides;
- Post crash response.
This will back up the more normal strategies of Engineering and Enforcement.
The key demonstrably effective strategies are:
- Encouraging use of safer modes and safer routes
- Safety conscious planning and proactive safety engineering design
- Safe separation or safe integration of mixed road use
- Managing speeds to crash protection levels
- Providing crash protective roadsides
- Providing vehicles with collision avoidance and collision injury mitigation and protection
- Deterring dangerous behaviour and ensuring compliance with key safety rules by social marketing and increased highly visible police enforcement and use of camera technologies and by providing proven driver assistance safety technologies in motor vehicles to help drivers keep to speed limits, wear seat belts, and avoid excess alcohol.
- Managing risk via driver standards e.g. graduated driver licensing.
- Fast and efficient emergency medical help, diagnosis and care.
Safe System/Vision Zero has a long-term goal for a road traffic system which is eventually free from death and serious injury. It involves an important paradigm shift from trying to prevent all collisions to preventing death and mitigating serious injury in road traffic collisions, a problem which is largely preventable based on current knowledge. It is backed up by interim quantitative targets to reduce numbers of deaths and serious injuries usually over a 10 year period. In Safe System, there is also focus on targeting intermediate outcomes that are causally related to death and serious injury e.g. average speeds, seat belt use, sober driving, the safety quality of roads and vehicles and emergency medical system response.
Safe System is a shared responsibility between government agencies at different levels and a range of multi-sectoral agencies and stakeholders (road managers, vehicle manufacturers, emergency medical system providers, safety rule compliance managers, employers, road users) to take appropriate actions to ensure that road collisions do not lead to serious or fatal injuries.
Given this complex multi-agency and multi-sectoral context, it requires careful leadership by government and top management of organisations.
Safe System strategy implementation requires strengthened institutional delivery and identified good practice for all these functions. A road safety management capacity review is recommended as an initial first step to provide a framework for all key agencies to assess strengths and weaknesses of current approaches and to identify next steps.
With this in mind all authorities currently involved with the Peninsula Road Safety Partnership have undertaken a Strategic Needs Assessment, in order to summarise the key road safety challenges facing the peninsula and to frame these challenges in a Safe Systems and public health context.
Following which informal discussions are now ongoing at both strategic and operational levels to formalise how a Devon and Cornwall Peninsula Road Safety Partnership might look and operate.
Casualty and collision data
A Casualty is a person killed or injured in a reported collision on a public road. Casualties are sub-divided into killed, seriously injured and slightly injured. The graphs below outline the road casualty and collision data for the years 2010 to 2020 compared against the government targets (where applicable).
Whilst the Reported Road Casualties GB 2020 has yet to be published, in the year ending June 2020, there were an estimated 1,580 road deaths in the year ending June 2020 which includes three months of the national lockdown. This is a decrease of 14% compared to the previous year. This change is statistically significant at the 95% confidence level.
Nationally there were 131,220 casualties of all severities in the year ending June 2020, down by 16% from the previous year. This change is statistically significant.
The overall casualty rate per vehicle mile decreased by 2% over the same period. The reduction in casualties is broadly in line with the reduction in traffic which decreased by 14% over this period.
Between January and June 2020, nationally an estimated 670 people were killed in reported road accidents. This is a decrease of 21% compared to the equivalent period of 2019 (838). This decrease is statistically significant at the 95% confidence level.
There were larger reductions in serious and slightly injured casualties than fatalities, with total casualties 30% lower than in the first half of 2019.
Nationally the number of casualties decreased most in April, with a fall of 67% compared to 2019. Although the number of casualties then increased for May and June, figures were considerably lower than the equivalent months of the previous year (45% and 33% lower, respectively).
This trend coincides with changes in traffic volumes. Road traffic decreased by 8% for January to March and 49% for April to June compared to 2019. An exploratory DfT analysis suggested the impact of the coronavirus pandemic affected road traffic differently by road user type.
The key findings of the DfT’s Provisional Road Traffic Estimates Great Britain October 2019 – September 2020 show that:
- All motor vehicle traffic decreased by 18.9%. This is the largest fall since quarterly records started in 1994.
- Car traffic decreased by 20.9%.
- Van and lorry traffic decreased by 11.4% and 10.0%, respectively.
- Traffic decreased across all main road types. Motorways, 'A' roads and minor roads decreased by 24.9%, 18.7% and 15.9% respectively
It has long been known that non-fatal (and particularly slight) casualties are underreported to the police and therefore this figure is likely to be an under estimate of the total.
The introduction of online self-reporting by the Metropolitan Police Service at the end of 2016 and a few other forces in 2018, is likely to have led to an increase in the number of non-fatal (and particularly slight) casualties reported in these forces and therefore impact the total for Great Britain.
Approximately half of English police forces adopted the CRASH (Collision Recording and Sharing) system for recording reported road traffic collisions at the end of 2015 or the first part of 2016, Devon and Cornwall Police switched in December 2015.
It is likely that the recording of injury severity is more accurate for forces using this new reporting system. Nationally this has had a large impact on the number of serious injuries recorded in 2016, compared with 2015. Some of these serious injuries may previously have been classified as slight injuries, which means that the 2016 and 2017 serious injury figures are not comparable to previous years.
CRASH is an injury-based severity reporting systems where the officer records the most severe injury for the casualty and the injuries are then automatically converted to a severity level from ‘slight’ to ‘serious’. Eliminating the uncertainty in determining severity that arises from the officer having to make their own judgement means that the new severity level data observed from these systems using injury based methods are expected to be more accurate than the data from other systems.
Therefore there has been a large increase in the number of serious injuries reported by the police after the introduction of CRASH in 2015/16 (+20%); as around half of police forces in England adopted this system, however the number of serious injuries recorded in 2017 has remained stable when compared to 2016.
Even though Torbay has such low base figures, it should be noted that this still showed an increase in our KSI figures of 15% between 2015 and 2016.
Fatalities
| Year | Number |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 0 |
| 2019 | 4 |
| 2018 | 2 |
| 2017 | 1 |
| 2016 | 3 |
| 2015 | 0 |
| 2014 | 1 |
| 2013 | 2 |
| 2012 | 3 |
| 2011 | 1 |
| 2010 | 1 |
There were no fatalities on Torbay roads in 2020, the first time since 2015.
Killed and Seriously Injured (KSI’s) (all age groups)
| Year | KSI (all ages) | Target KSI (all ages) |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 34 | 28 |
| 2019 | 57 | 29 |
| 2018 | 56 | 30 |
| 2017 | 48 | 31 |
| 2016 | 45 | 32 |
| 2015 | 39 | 33 |
| 2014 | 43 | 34 |
| 2013 | 53 | 35 |
| 2012 | 39 | 36 |
| 2011 | 30 | N/A |
| 2010 | 31 | N/A |
In 2020 there was a reduction in the numbers of killed and seriously injured casualties, showing a decrease in the number of killed and seriously injured since last year, dropping from 57 to 34.
We continue to work from very low base figures and significant reductions can be very hard to identify, further details on reviewing collision cluster sites are included in the initiatives section.
It should be noted that due to the change in the Police collision recording system (as detailed in fatalities above) the serious injury figures from 2016 onwards are not comparable to previous years.
Killed and seriously injured (0 – 15 age group)
| Year | KSI (0 to 15) | Target KSI (0 to 15) |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 1 | 3 |
| 2019 | 4 | 3 |
| 2018 | 5 | 3 |
| 2017 | 2 | 3 |
| 2016 | 2 | 3 |
| 2015 | 3 | 3 |
| 2014 | 3 | 4 |
| 2013 | 5 | 4 |
| 2012 | 1 | 4 |
| 2011 | 5 | N/A |
| 2010 | 4 | N/A |
After a decrease of one child killed and seriously injured casualties to a total of four in 2019, the results for 2020 show there has been a further decrease in the number since last year, from 4 to 1.
There could be a number of reasons for this, however the COVID-19 Pandemic, the closure of schools and the introduction of home schooling will have reduced the number of children using the network whilst travelling to and from school.
Analysis shows that the casualty was a 10 year-old pedestrian, riding a Skateboard and who was in a collision with a car.
It should be noted that due to the change in the Police collision recording system (as detailed in fatalities above) the serious injury figures from 2016 onwards are not comparable to previous years.
Slight injuries
| Year | Slight (all ages) | Target slight (all ages) | Slight (0 to 15) | Target Slight (0 to 15) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 187 | 365 | 17 | 41 |
| 2019 | 245 | 371 | 21 | 42 |
| 2018 | 277 | 376 | 29 | 43 |
| 2017 | 274 | 381 | 20 | 44 |
| 2016 | 315 | 386 | 31 | 45 |
| 2015 | 334 | 391 | 23 | 46 |
| 2014 | 320 | 396 | 24 | 46 |
| 2013 | 311 | 401 | 42 | 46 |
| 2012 | 367 | 406 | 47 | 46 |
| 2011 | 349 | N/A | 29 | N/A |
| 2010 | 396 | 401 | 39 | 75 |
All ages
The results show slight injury casualties fell dramatically in 2020 by 58 from 245 to 187 and our figures continue to show a downward trend from the 1988 baseline of 445.
Children (0-15 age group)
Once again there has been a decrease in child slights, with 17 being recorded in 2020.
Provisional analysis shows that 65% of these casualties were pedestrians, the youngest of which was three years old.
For the second year running no cyclists were injured in this age group, however, we did record our first child e-scooter casualty, which took place on Christmas day.
It should be noted that the Covid 19 Pandemic, the closure of schools and the introduction of homeschooling will have reduced the number of children using the network whilst travelling to and from school.
This information can be split as follows:
| Mode of transport | Fatal | Serious | Slight | Total | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Motor vehicles only (exc. 2-wheels) | 0 | 15 | 103 | 118 | 64 |
| 2-wheeled motor vehicles | 0 | 14 | 25 | 39 | 21 |
| Pedal cycles | 0 | 4 | 20 | 24 | 13 |
| Horses and other | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Total | 0 | 33 | 150 | 183 | 100 |
| Type | Fatal | Serious | Slight | Total | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vehicle driver | 0 | 5 | 76 | 81 | 37 |
| Passenger | 0 | 2 | 31 | 33 | 15 |
| Motorcycle rider | 0 | 13 | 25 | 38 | 17 |
| Cyclist | 0 | 4 | 19 | 23 | 10 |
| Pedestrian | 0 | 10 | 36 | 45 | 21 |
| Other | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 0 | 34 | 187 | 221 | 100 |
In the 2020 casualty figures, there are two groups which have shown a marked increase in number, these being powered two-wheelers (e.g. motorcyclists) and cyclists, which have increased from 10% to 17% and 5% to 10% of the total number respectively.
It should be noted that during the Covid 19 Pandemic, the closure of schools and the introduction of both homeschooling and home working noticeably reduced the number of vehicles using the network.
This increased road space may well have tempted more road users to switch their mode of transport from four wheels to two or increased their usage of such transport. Likewise, good weather and more spare time has encouraged riders to return to the roads and perhaps venture further afield.
Planned road safety campaigns 2021
Reductions in local government grants from Central Government and the increasing demands on our services has meant that difficult decisions have had to be made and as there is no statutory duty to provide Road Safety officers, the Mayors Budget for 2017/2018 resulted in the loss of posts within Road Safety.
Whilst there will be no Road Safety campaigns or Road Safety education undertaken during 2021, the Road Safety pages will become a pointing service, guiding users to associated Road Safety websites for the latest available information.
However, investment in officer resource will be required to bring the webpage up to date.
Planned expenditure of funding for road safety initiatives
Contained within the Local Transport Plan Implementation Plan (2016/17 – 2020/21) are the details of committed budgets which includes Road Safety initiatives. This information is shown under the heading of Safety/Congestion/Engineering Work.
This budget will allow for a number of small minor road safety engineering schemes each year. Any larger schemes will need to be considered as separate businesses cases as part of the authority’s capital budget setting process.
The expenditure for minor schemes in 2021/22 is expected to be £50,000.
Traffic Action Zones
The Local Transport Plan 3 (2011 – 2016) identified the continued provision of funding from the capital programme for Traffic Action Zones (TAZ), the last of which was in Coombe Pafford and Hele, which was implemented during 2013/2014.
There are currently no plans to consider any further TAZ’s, however, works are currently underway to implement the first two member approved residential 20mph zones, one in Foxhole and the other in Barton.
Road Safety Initiatives
With the implementation of various road safety schemes since Torbay became a unitary authority, there are now very few obvious ‘traditional’ collision cluster areas that can be identified. This means that the law of diminishing returns applies to any schemes implemented.
However, engineering measures are an important part of our strategy in reducing collisions.
We will continue with its Safer Journeys programme and will carry out a review of accidents to identify any linear routes which have a higher than normal collision record.
Further details of the engineering measures to be carried out in 2021/22 will be presented to the Transport Working Party in the Road Safety Initiatives Report.
Peninsula Road Safety Partnership
We continue to work closely with the Police to ensure enforcement is a key activity in road casualty reduction. The Council also works with the Peninsula Road Safety Partnership (shortly to be known as Vision Zero South West) to use camera enforcement and education to reduce speeds and red light violations.
There will be no revenue funding for the operation of Safety Cameras in 2021/22, however, the operation and enforcement of the fixed safety camera sites within Torbay will continue. The partnership are responsible for the maintenance of the cameras, whilst the authority are responsible for the poles and housings and any works required would be funded from our maintenance budget.
We will continue to work closely with the partnership to ensure that mobile safety camera activity is targeted at those locations where speed related problems continue in an effort to increase the visibility of enforcement.
A new addition for 2018 was the partnerships ‘No Excuses’ team, which has proved to be very effective. With operational hubs at Exeter and Bodmin, the officers are dedicated to targeting offences on the region's roads and to assist and enable fellow roads policing and response officers to do the same.
Concentrating on tackling the Fatal Five offences that cause an unacceptable level of deaths and serious injuries on our roads – excessive or inappropriate speed, not wearing a seatbelt, distracted driving such as using a handheld mobile phone, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and careless or inconsiderate driving.
They are supported by a researcher to identify significant intelligence trends on road users and areas with specific issues.