Road deaths a cause for concern
Accident figures for West Berkshire have halved in a decade but fatalities have risen
THE number of people injured in road traffic collisions in West Berkshire has nearly halved in a decade but the number of deaths has fluctuated, with eleven fatalities occurring on the district's roads last year.
According to new statistics by Safer Roads, run by a not-for-profit company Road Safety Analysis and which works in partnership with the six local authorities in Berkshire to try and reduce the casualties on the county's roads, the total number of injuries on West Berkshire's roads has decreased from 837 in the year 2000 to 425 last year, a 49 percent reduction.
This is the biggest percentage reduction in all of Berkshire over the past decade with Reading reducing its total of those injured on the roads from 707 to 453, a reduction of 36 percent, and Slough reducing its total by just five percent from 649 to 618 during the same period.
However, the eleven fatalities last year in West Berkshire is actually an increase on the nine deaths on the district's roads which occurred in 2008 and the 10 deaths in 2009.
Other areas of the county, such as Slough, recorded zero deaths in 2009 and two last year, and in Reading there were four deaths in 2010.
Richard Owen, spokesman for Safer Roads, said: “Working together by pooling information, knowledge and resources enables road safety bodies in Berkshire to achieve better results in developing more effective campaigns than they would on their own.
“We will continue the great work that has been going on in recent years because every road death is a tragedy, and we must do all we can to prevent them in the future.”
Safer Roads admits it is still trying to reduce the amount of young motorists involved in accidents.
Figures show that 16 to 24-year-olds are most likely to be involved in accidents in Berkshire. In 2000, people in that age category were involved in 1005 of the county's 4004 crashes, and last year they were involved in 707 of the 2665 accidents in Berkshire.
The number of pedal cyclists involved in collisions is also an issue for Safer Roads, with 256 accidents involving pedal cyclists in Berkshire last year - a decrease of 26 percent from 2000 when the figure was 347.
Alcohol being an influencing factor in accidents has also been reduced in the county, from 323 in 2000 to 156 in 2010.
The same can be said for drugs which decreased from 44 in 2000 to 18 last year.
Collisions where excessive speed has been a factor have also been reduced by 36 percent from 595 accidents in 2000 to 379 last year.
The total number of people killed or seriously injured in West Berkshire in the year 2000 was 126, but stood at 60 last year.
For more information visit Safer Roads' website at www.saferroads.org
