1. Road safety as a public health problem – the challenges of rural roads
November 2018

2. What is the issue?
Parliamentary Review of Health and Care in Wales has “improving population health and wellbeing through prevention” as one of the ‘Quadruple aims’.
Preventing death and injury on the road is, I would argue, central to this aim.
Some basic stats about RTCs

3. Reduction in road deaths has stalled
Source: EuroRAP
Source: British EuroRap results 2018; in report “Getting back on track2 (Road Safety Foundation)
The historical trend is not continuing
The trend in the number of fatalities has been broadly flat since 2010 (DfT, Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain, 2017)

4. Why worry about rural roads?
Source: DfT 2018
Source: Reported Road Casualties, GB, 2017 (DfT)
Specific rural road RTC stats
Rural roads represent the largest proportion of fatalities
The number of deaths is disproportionate to the volume of traffic

5. What are the risks? Environment
Lack of road markings and run-off
No traffic separation (recommended speed limits are lower vs divided roads)
Time for emergency services to find location (Powys CC initiative to put grid references on reverse of all road signs)
Distance to hospital services

6. What are the risks - People?
Speeding is contributory factor in around 50% of all collisions
Distracted driving is contributory factor in around 25% (probably an underestimate)

7. Speeding as a contributory factor in crashes by road type
Motorway
A road
B road
Other
Exceeding speed limit 3% 5% 6%
Travelling too fast for conditions 9% 8% 7%
Driver careless, reckless
or in a hurry
10%
14%
15%
TOTAL
22%
25%
29%
28%
Source: DfT 2018
Speeding is contributory factor in around a quarter to a third of all collisions (Source: Road Casualties 2017; RAS50003, DfT, 2018)
Official figures say distracted driving is contributory factor in around 5-6% (probably an underestimate)

8. Rural roads are higher risk
Source: EuroRAP
The stats tell us that rural roads are higher risk (EuroRAP) and Wales has its share of high risk roads due to proportion of ‘rural’ roads
Single carriageway A roads have 8 times the risk of motorways and more than 3 times the risk of dual carriageways/
This chart shows KSI risk by road type with single carriageway roads having highest risk.
MOST rural roads are single carriageway (particularly in this county Powys)
PLUS The A548 in Wales between junction A55 and junction with A548 is one of Britain’s persistently higher risk roads with one of highest EuroRAP risk ratings (120.9) and (116.9) and no significant reduction between the periods.
(The British EuroRAP network is motorways and A roads outside urban areas = 10% of network but 52% fatalities between )
KSI crashes on this network have increase by almost 3% to
(CRASH system changes may confound these figures?)

9. Welsh roads rated for crash risk…and Mid Wales
This chart shows KSI risk by road type with single carriageway roads having highest risk.
MOST rural roads are single carriageway (particularly in this county Powys) and few roads are low risk.
Add the issue of access to services to this and survival outcomes can be affected – ‘Golden Hour’ is compromised.
PLUS The A548 in Wales between junction A55 and junction with A548 is one of Britain’s persistently higher risk roads with one of highest EuroRAP risk ratings (120.9) and (116.9) and no significant reduction between the periods.
Source: EuroRAP

10. What can be done? ISSUE Intervention 1 Intervention 2 Speeding
Speed awareness courses
Speed cameras
Distracted driving
Fixed penalty notice
Behavioural change techniques? (EAST)
Groups at risk
Graduated driver licensing
Advanced training
(RoSPA, IAM etc.)
We need to make speeding and distracted driving as unacceptable as drink driving
There is strong evidence that graduated driver licencing can reduce risk for younger (and older) drivers
Speed awareness courses also reduce crash risk
Average speed cameras are particularly effective
ISA is a new technology already available which ensures speed compliance
Advanced training for particular groups
Behaviour change techniques for distracted driving – we need to understand why people still do it
EAST = easy, affordable, social, timely (half life of the teachable moment)

11. What are the benefits? This puts a value on the consequences
Of course, impossible to put a value on personal loss or bereavement

12. Unintended consequences…
Just a word about potential consequences of interventions
e.g. encouraging older people to stop driving can lead to higher risk to health and wellbeing through cycling or social isolation

13. Thanks for listening. Any Questions?
Jenny Shepherd
Senior Researcher
+44 [0] | +44 [0]
TRL | Crowthorne House | Nine Mile Ride | Wokingham
Berkshire | RG40 3GA | United Kingdom

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