South Gloucestershire Council

Published: 07/06/2016

Road accident rates in South Gloucestershire continue to fall and are at their lowest level since the council was formed in 1996, the latest figures show.

2015 was another encouraging year for road safety in South Gloucestershire as casualty numbers continued to drop. The total casualty figure for the district in 2015 was 522, which is a six per cent reduction on the 2014 figure of 555. Of the 522, a total of 45 were recorded as serious, and five were fatal.

These figures reflect national data which show that in 2014 – the most recent year for which national figures are available – South Gloucestershire was not only the safest authority of the four local authorities in the West of England Partnership, but was also the safest local authority in England (per billion vehicle miles travelled).

South Gloucestershire Council’s Planning, Transportation & Strategic Environment (PTSE) lead member Cllr Colin Hunt welcomed the figures. He said: “South Gloucestershire has some of the safest roads in the country and these latest figures continue this trend.
“However, this doesn’t mean that we can afford to become complacent. Any casualty or death on our roads is one too many, so we will continue to make every effort to ensure that South Gloucestershire continues to be one of the country’s safest areas to live and work.”

We work closely with the police and other agencies to monitor where people are injured on South Gloucestershire’s road network. This information is used to target spending on areas with the highest accident rates and the most vulnerable road users such as children, pedestrians and cyclists. We additionally carry out road safety audits on new highway schemes to try to make sure that potential road safety problems are avoided.

Our road safety education team actively promotes education, training and awareness programmes to vulnerable road user groups. Examples include adult and child cycle training, motorcycle safety, child seat safety checks and young driver in-car safety. Road safety workshops are also provided to all primary and secondary schools in South Gloucestershire.