Big increase in road deaths in York

Accident figures from the Department of Transport

The number of people killed on York’s roads almost doubled last year.

The figures have been released by the Department of Transport (http://tinyurl.com/Road-accidents) and show that there were 7 fatalities on York’s roads in 2011 compared to only 4 in 2010.

The overall number of killed and seriously injured (KSI) shows a small increase although the total number of injury accidents (including “slight”) did reduce from 559 to 552.

Surprisingly the York Council has so far failed to debate the new figures which do suggest that a fresh initiative is required if the downward trend in accident numbers (KSI stood at 160 in 2006) is to be sustained.

There is no item in the Council forward programme which would allow the issue to be debated during the next 4 months.

The DpT report also makes gloomy reading for those who believe that 20 mph speed limits may be the solution to the problem. The biggest increase in accident numbers nationally occurred in 20 mph zones where there were 25% more accidents than in 2010.

All other built up areas – with speed limits of 30 and 40 mph – showed a small fall in accident rates.