TARGET
Derby City Council will miss out on
vital funding, worth £90,000 a year, unless it
meets Government-set targets to reduce the number
of people killed or seriously injured in road
accidents.
The council says it can meet the target for 2004
of 111 deaths or serious injuries between January
and December as long as the number of accidents
does not increase over the winter months.
But if it misses the target, the job of one road
safety officer is at risk, the cycle training
scheme called Bike Safe and pedestrian training
scheme Kerbcraft could be under threat. |
OLD MEN, BIG
BIKES
The government is to crack down on
middle-aged men who have taken to riding powerful
bikes that they are unable to control. These men
are likely to have given up smaller machines in
their youth for a family car.
Ministers believe the bikers are undermining road
safety policies and, under new plans, riders
returning to biking after a long absence could be
forced to take training and a test on smaller
machines.
At the moment there is nothing to stop an
individual who passed a motorcycle test many
years ago returning to biking on a powerful
machine.
The new legislation, however, will force all
motorcyclists to show they are capable of riding
a smaller bike before they can progress to one
above 400cc. Under-21s are already restricted to
medium-powered bikes for two years after passing
their test. |
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ROAD SAFETY 2
Drivers who knock down children should have
to pay compensation even if the victim ran out without
looking, according to a report commissioned by the
Government. The motorist would be assumed to be
responsible in civil proceedings for any collision
involving a child in a residential area. Bereaved parents
could claim compensation from the drivers insurers
and he would lose any no-claims discount.
The driver could avoid being held responsible only if he
could prove that he had taken every reasonable step to
avoid the collision. Complying with the speed limit would
not be a sufficient defence because the driver should
have realised that there was a possibility of a child
running out and reduced his speed accordingly. Britain
has the best overall road safety record in Europe but one
of the highest death rates for child pedestrians. In
2002, 79 pedestrians aged under 16 were killed and 2,800
seriously injured.
The Department for Transport commissioned a group of
academics to study road safety policy in other European
countries and identify any measures that might save
childrens lives. The study found that the two
countries with the lowest child pedestrian death rates,
Sweden and the Netherlands, had laws that assumed the
driver to be responsible in collisions with children.
Germany, which had the fourth lowest rate, had a similar
law. The study recommended that the Government should
consider introducing the same principle into English law.
Nicola Christie, senior researcher in public health at
Surrey University and the lead author of the study, said,
While it goes against the grain to assume guilt
unless it is proven, this law could help to reduce deaths
and injuries because drivers would be more careful.
The Dutch law was set in 1988 in a case involving a
13-year-old girl who cycled suddenly out of a side road
and was hit and seriously injured by a car that had
priority on a main road. The Dutch Supreme Court ruled
that children under 14 could not be expected to observe
traffic rules and ordered the driver to pay all the
damages and costs.
Willem Vermeulen, safety researcher at the Dutch Traffic
Department, said, This law has had a psychological
effect in making drivers more aware of the vulnerability
of children. If they see a ball bounce into the road they
have to assume that a child will run out after it. They
know that if they hit a child, practically the only
excuse accepted is that the child voluntarily threw
itself under the car. Mr Vermeulen said that the
law had initally been met with furious protests by Dutch
motorists. But our society has now widely accepted
that drivers need an extra burden because of their
powerful position in traffic. The current debate is
whether to extend the law to children over 14.
Zoe Stow, head of RoadPeace, the charity that supports
those bereaved and injured by road crashes, said that too
many drivers were able to escape responsibility for
collisions because of the lack of witnesses. She said,
The driver can easily blame the child because the
child may be dead and unable to defend itself. We need to
change the burden of proof so that fewer drivers get off
scot-free. Rob Gifford, director of the
Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety,
said, Some drivers may be forced to pay out when
there was no fault at all on their part. But that is an
acceptable price to pay for civilising our streets.
(Source: Times Online)
New
technology is being developed that will radically change
the way in which road safety laws are enforced. From a
black box in the boot to "alcolocks" on the
dashboard, the car of the future is likely to be crammed
with equipment designed to keep drunken drivers away from
the wheel and slow down speeders. Motorists should brace
themselves for more roadside cameras that will catch
drivers who tail gate or do not put on their seat belt.
Many forces are already equipped with automatic number
plate recognition systems, cameras that can instantly
recognise a car and within seconds establish whether it
is taxed and has an MoT test certificate.
These will also soon be linked to a motor insurance
database, enabling officers to catch uninsured drivers
instantly. More than likely the officer will be equipped
with some form of handheld computer, linked to the
internet. The driving licence which will be inspected by
the officer could well be a biometric smart card, on
which endorsements and other personal information would
be stored on a chip. It could also contain iris
recognition or fingerprint data if it is combined with a
national identity card.
The Dutch and Israelis have started testing cameras
designed to identify motorists who tail-gate. The
Department of Transport said it had "no plans"
to follow suit, but existing roadside cameras can already
pick up motorists driving dangerously close to the car in
front, enabling the police to intervene. Another Dutch
initiative, cameras that can identify a motorist driving
without a seat belt, is being "watched with
interest" by the department. It is equally
interested in an Italian experiment to crack down on
illegal overtaking.
This entails placing sensors in the middle of the road
which are linked to roadside cameras. If a motorist tries
to overtake illegally, by crossing double white lines,
the offence is picked up and recorded. Alcolocks, a
device that stops a car starting if the driver is over
the legal limit, have been fitted to 6,000 cars in
Sweden. The motorist has to breathe into a tube and the
ignition will not start unless the reading is below the
drink-drive limit.
The Road Safety Bill currently before Parliament gives
motorists the opportunity to cut a long driving ban if
they agree to have one fitted to their car. "Black
boxes", electronic data recorders, are already being
used by Norwich Union as part of its "pay as you
drive" motor insurance scheme. The Government
believes that they could also be used to provide
information about how a car was driven in the moments
leading up to a crash. (Source: The Telegraph)
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