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ROAD
SAFETY NEWS - WEEK COMMENCING 1 MARCH 2004
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Study reveals
perils of child seat misfitting
New research from The AA Motoring Trust has revealed how
basic mistakes when fitting child seats can kill and injure children,
even in low speed crashes. Tests carried out at just 19mph with
seats that had been fitted incorrectly produced results that would
have seriously injured any child sitting in them.
Every year over 100,000 children are involved in crashes where
it is crucial how well the child seat is fitted. Most children
receive little more than a jolt or a shock, but 10,000 are hurt,
with 670 seriously injured and 30 killed.
In some cases the child had been completely unrestrained, but
in others the child was sitting in a poorly fitted seat.
Andrew Howard, head of road safety at The AA Motoring
Trust, says: "Fitting a child seat incorrectly is a serious
issue and one that parents and childminders must not ignore. We
estimate that around two thirds of all child seats are incorrectly
fitted and a third could cause serious injury to the child.
"Sometimes parents make mistakes fitting seats, sometimes
they take short cuts or make compromises in how they are worn
in an effort to keep children quiet. Using a child seat is not
always straightforward and parents need to invest time in checking
that the seat is fitted properly before setting out on every journey."
The tests were carried out by experts from the Transport Research
Laboratory (TRL) at the Britax test facility in Andover, Hampshire,
using realistic child dummies sitting in Britax child restraints.
The seats were deliberately installed incorrectly to illustrate
the consequences of misfitting.
The research simulated various misfitting scenarios, all based
on real-life accidents where children had been killed or seriously
injured. These included a situation where no seat belt had been
used; a child unfastening his own harness; a child kneeling on
the back seat; a wrongly fitted combination restraint, which is
used to carry babies and toddlers; a child who was wearing the
adult seatbelt incorrectly; a mother who was holding her child
on her lap; a wrongly fitted infant carrier; and where too much
strain had been placed on the seatbelt buckle.
For further information and to read the full press release go
to: www.AAtrust.com
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Four
authorities share £4.3 to improve road safety
Four local authorities have been awarded over £4m for extra
road safety measures to reduce casualties in deprived areas. The
money has been allocated to Bradford, Liverpool, Nottingham and
Sandwell in the West Midlands from the 'Dealing with Disadvantage'
initiative and will be used to address road safety problems in poorer
areas.
Children from the most deprived areas are five times more likely
to be killed in road accidents than children from more affluent
areas.
Projects will include making routes to schools, parks and play areas
safer, educating children and adults to dangers on the road, traffic
calming measures, new pedestrian crossings and child car seat inspection
and fitting services.
The total grants announced last week were:
| Bradford |
£1,160,000 |
| Liverpool |
£1,017,000 |
| Nottingham |
£862,000 |
| Sandwell
|
£1,282,750 |
| TOTAL |
£4,321,750 |
More
@ http://www.dft.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2004_0018.
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Local
authority casualty figures published
A breakdown of road casualties according to local authority and
region has been published by the DfT. The statistics show both current
casualty rates and a comparison with the 1994-1998 baseline figures.
Among the council areas to achieve the most progress on reducing
casualties are:
Knowsley:
• 60% reduction in the number of KSIs
•
44% reduction in child
KSIs
•
65% reduction in the
KSI rate (per 100 million vehicle kilometres)
Worcestershire:
•
45% reduction in KSIs
•
58% reduction in child
KSIs
•
51% reduction in the
KSI rate
Telford and Wrekin:
•
54% reduction in KSIs
•
40% reduction in child
KSIs
•
59% reduction in the
KSI rate
Halton:
•
57% reduction in KSIs
•
70% reduction in child
KSIs
•
62% reduction in the
KSI rate
Blackburn with Darwen:
•
48% reduction in KSIs
•
54% reduction in child
KSIs
•
51% reduction in the
KSI rate
Blackpool:
•
47% reduction in KSIs
•
39% reduction in child
KSIs
•
50% reduction in the
KSI rate
Council areas with significant increases in road casualties included:
City of Bristol:
•
37% increase in KSIs
•
22% increase in child
KSIs
•
29% increase in the
KSI rate
Bournemouth:
•
37% increase in KSIs
•
15% reduction in child
KSIs
•
29% increase in the
KSI rate
However, local authorities have defended their road safety performance
in the wake of the new statistics (Surveyor 26 February), claiming
that while the vast majority of counties and unitaries reduced KSIs
by a sizeable amount, casualties increased in just 17 areas.
More @ http://www.pacts.org.uk/news/newsframe.htm. |
RoSPA
conference will seek ways to protect vulnerable road users
Ways of protecting the UK’s most vulnerable road users will
be discussed at RoSPA’s National Road Safety Congress
this week (1-3 March). Experts will be discussing how to reduce
the risk to children – whether travelling on foot, bicycle
or in cars - pedestrians, pedal cyclists, motorcyclists and horse
riders. These groups make up about a quarter of road casualties,
but account for almost half of the fatalities.
Kevin Clinton, RoSPA head of road safety said: "Much
of the recent road safety debate has concentrated on speed but this
conference will be an opportunity to consider the victims of poor
driving and irresponsible behaviour on our roads.
"School age children are more at risk on our roads than anywhere
else. Motorcycle fatalities are on the rise and more people are
being encouraged to cycle and walk. We must do all we can to protect
them."
The programme includes speakers on motorcycle training, improving
vehicle design, better methods of fitting child car seats, road
safety education, horse rider safety and developing cycle training.
There will also be reports on pedestrian and cyclist training for
groups of adults with learning difficulties and road safety training
for young wheelchair users.
The work of the Children’s Traffic Club will be featured as
well as the Roadie Club. Roadie is Cardiff City Council’s friendly
car-driving robot who tours infant and primary school giving road
safety lessons. He will be featured in the congress exhibition.
The full programme can be found at http://www.rospa.com/road. |
More
flexibility over 30mph zones
Highway
authorities have been given more flexibility to introduce 30mph
limits in villages in new guidance from the DfT (Surveyor 26 February).
The traffic advisory leaflet 1/04 encourages councils to consider
30mph limits in any settlement with 20 or more houses.
We will cover this topic in more detail next week. |
PACTS
presents ‘at work’ conference
A conference organised by PACTS entitled Driving While At Work:
Where Next? will take place on 13 July in central London.
Both the independent Dykes report, published by the Health and Safety
Executive, and subsequent HSE guidance to employers have identified
that as many as one in three road crashes may involve people driving
while at work.
This conference will attempt to analyse the scale of work-related
road casualties, to look at the economic case for taking action
and at the resources available to employers to help reduce work-related
road deaths and injuries. Research into the accident liability of
company car drivers will provide the basis for the day. The potential
lessons to be learned from other modes such as train drivers will
also be considered.
The conference brochure can be downloaded at http://www.pacts.org.uk/conferences/Julybrochure04.pdf
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Training
opportunities for road safety professionals
TMS Consultancy has vacancies on a number
of training courses for road safety professionals over the coming
months. These include:
16-18 March: Module 15 - Advanced Road Safety Audit
13 May: Risk Assessment for Road Safety Officers (Coventry)
16th-21 May: NSTG Road Safety Officers Phase 2 Training (Birmingham)
18-20 May: Introduction to Road Safety Audit (Coventry)
To book a place or for further details contact Gill Brooks,
office manager, TMS Consultancy, 024 76 690900. |
RoSPA’s
fleet website success
RoSPA’s new website for fleet managers
- www.rospa.com/drivertraining
- has been attracting more than 500 visitors a day since it was
launched towards the end of 2003. Fleet bosses have shown particular
interest in factsheets and training course outlines, with nearly
100 being downloaded every day.
Charles Davis, RoSPA head of driver and fleet solutions,
said: "The website’s popularity shows how seriously the
fleet industry is taking health and safety."
As well as providing full details of RoSPA products and training
courses, the website has factsheets on subjects such as speed cameras,
mobile phones and driving, safe journey planning, winter driving
and choosing safer vehicles.
There are sections on the importance of managing occupational road
risk and the latest situation regarding regulations and legislation.
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