Each day an average of six people are injured while using BCP’s and Dorset’s roads. Road crashes can potentially have tragic consequences for those involved, their friends and families; however, the majority are almost entirely avoidable. Across Dorset, road casualties were estimated to cost the local economy £141 million pounds in 2019 alone.
The Dorset Strategic Road Safety Partnership (DSRSP) has a clear aim and commitment to eradicate preventable deaths and serious injuries on Dorset’s roads.
All partners with responsibility for road safety must work together to deliver this strategy and work towards achieving the objectives within it, especially Local Authorities, who have a statutory duty in this respect. Effective collaboration is the most effective way to reduce deaths and serious injuries and ensure that everyone can travel safely on Dorset’s roads.
The DSRSP is committed to achieve this through the delivery of a coordinated, prioritised and evidence-based strategy. This strategy brings together partners’ education, enforcement and engineering activities to address common themes, delivered through the Dorset Road Safe Tactical Group.
With declining resources, the challenge for all partners is to increase co-operation and sharing of resources and ensure any interventions are designed and prioritised based on evidence.
We want this strategy to support all partners in the delivery of effective road safety measures, targeting the key themes in the most cost-effective way, with the specific aim of reducing road deaths and serious injuries.
Nationally there has been progress in reducing overall road casualties although the downward trend in road fatalities has stalled somewhat since 2012. In addition, figures for the South West region have not fallen sufficiently in recent years to meet the targets set out in Councils’ Local Transport Plans (LTP).
The first DSRSP Strategy set a target of a 4% year on year reduction in Killed or Serious Injuries (KSIs) by 2020 against the baseline average for 2005-09 (i.e. 409 KSIs down to 262 KSIs). By the end of 2020 there were a total of 278 KSIs, which represents a 32% reduction against the target (although for much of 2020 road casualties decreased in line with road traffic and national lockdowns). It should be recognised that good progress has been made in Dorset compared with other areas.
We recognise, however, that to eradicate deaths and serious injuries we must continue to maintain a high profile on road safety and introduce measures and new technology which reduces road traffic casualties more quickly. We will do this in a way which reflects local and nationally stated priorities, increasing traffic levels, improved standards for highway design and ever improving vehicle safety.
“Our vision is to improve road safety by reducing the number of road deaths and serious injuries in Dorset by 40% to 213 KSIs by 2030 compared to the five year baseline for 2015 to 2019 of 355 KSIs with a vision of zero KSIs by 2050.”
We will seek to reduce road deaths and serious injuries and work together to avert them altogether, or to reduce their severity, by helping develop a safer road system, particularly where more sustainable forms of travel are encouraged.
Our view is that road deaths and serious injuries should not be either an acceptable or inevitable consequence of travel on our local road network. We hold this ambitious vision and invite all key stakeholders in road safety to share in and work towards making it a reality.
DSRSP’s aim is to improve the tasking, co-ordination and effectiveness of all road safety interventions based on joint analysis of available data and intelligence.
This Road Safety Strategy has been developed so that the Partnership can build on the success of services provided to date and by focusing on key themes that have been identified in the Government’s road safety statement “A Lifetime of Road Safety – Moving Britain Ahead (2019)” and are summarised as:
The key themes are:
Our aim is to develop these themes by focusing on the following 6 priority user groups:
In order to address these themes we will:
The DSRSP will hold the Dorset Road Safe Tactical Group to account by scrutinising its programmes and seeking assurance that the programmes and activities being delivered are effectively evaluated, ensuring that the programmes and activities have had a positive effect on road user safety.
Progress will be monitored against agreed indicators and prioritised at the following frequencies. All nominated group members will attend these meetings:
RIPP will ensure there is an evidence-led approach to innovative road safety interventions and campaigns. It will establish clear Vision Zero principles and objectives to ensure an outcome-based approach to data analysis and behavioural change.
DSRSP will monitor progress against the six priority focus road user groups listed above through specific annual indicators comparing these with the 2015-2019 baseline.
Through these partnership interventions we aim to achieve positive outcomes by reducing casualties and help protect the public who use our local roads.
