21/9/2005 - Road safety review

This week Cumbria County Council's cabinet have been discussing the way forward on how best to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on the county's roads.

The county council's scrutiny select committee on road safety has looked into the current position on road safety activity in Cumbria. The committee has made several recommendations to cabinet on how to address these issues, and highlighted that a key problem is drivers attitude and behaviour when they get behind the wheel. 

As part of the review, a pilot exercise targeting young drivers was carried out by an educational psychologist to study attitudes of teenage drivers towards risk. Four schools in West Cumbria took part in the study to answer the question; "Can young people's risky attitudes be changed in the direction of greater safety?"

The psychologist found that the students perception of risk increased after listening to a presentation on road safety which on two occasions was given by a parent who had lost her son in a fatal road accident. 

The Safer Roads for Cumbria partnership, is already running targeted campaigns to encourage young drivers to be more responsible and think of the consequences and dangers of driving irresponsibly. The county council's fire and rescue service, along with road safety and police officers regularly visit schools to educate and raise awareness of road safety issues, such as speeding, drink driving and pedestrian training.

The scrutiny report suggests that a review of the current Cumbria Road Safety Partnership's education and training programme is undertaken.

Another recent campign targeting all road users is the 'respect' community project which has been implemented in Barrow, Workington, Whitehaven and now Carlisle. The project encourages drivers to sign a pledge showing their commitment to reducing speed in the area.

County councillor Geoff Hodgson, cabinet spokesman for community safety said:

"Changing driver attitudes and behaviour is regarded as a key priority for us. The county council recognises the need to review the way we are currently handling road safety to try and reduce the number of people that are killed or seriously injured on the county's roads".

The findings of the three-month enquiry will now be used to advise future road safety activity in the county.