The investigations of accidents provides councils with important information which has to be used in order to prevent them recurring, to constantly improve the safety of the county's highways. How is the data used?
The information is used to help target council funds towards locations or routes with poor accident histories.
The team tries to find out why accidents are happening so that engineers can then improve safety.
What does accident investigation involve?
Accident investigation work involves:
- Identifying problem areas so that we can prioritise our work. We check our database to find sites where there is a concentration of 5 or more reported injury accidents in a 40m diameter circle in a three-year period. These are called 'accident concentration sites'
- Looking at those problem areas in detail to determine factors/causes. This is an important part of working out the best measures for the particular area
- Evaluating how effective potential measures could be by looking at:
- the potential benefits to the community
- how many accidents could potentially be saved
How much does an accident 'cost'?
In addition to reducing the pain and suffering of accident victims and their families, preventing accidents can have a financial benefit for the community.
The Department for Transport estimates that each accident 'costs' the community approximately £64,000.
This value reflects:
- The cost of damage to vehicles and property
- The cost of police and the administrative costs of accident insurance - loss of earnings, national insurance contributions etc.
- Ambulance costs and the costs of hospital treatment
- Human costs (this includes the pain, grief and suffering to the casualty, relatives and friends and, for fatal casualties, the intrinsic loss of enjoyment of life
Addressing the accident problem
We write a report about each of the accident concentration sites. The report describes the site and type of accidents and recommends the type of works that might remedy the situation.
Every year, proposals for schemes based on our work are submitted to the council's executive member who makes a decision about which of the schemes will be carried out in the following year.
Priority is normally given to schemes for sites where there have been a higher proportion of fatal or serious accidents, or where there have been a higher number of child casualties.
South Gloucestershire's accident statistics
Every year, information about the number of accidents and casualties in South Gloucestershire is collected. These figures are compared year on year.
Accident concentration sites
An 'accident concentration site' is a site where there have been 5 or more reported injury accidents in a three-year period.
We look at each of the concentration sites in detail as well as other sites where there have been a high proportion of fatal or serious accidents, or where there have been a higher number of child casualties.
A list of South Gloucestershire's accident concentration sites is included in the council's Road Casualty Review.