BROMLEY: Cycling casualties increase despite overall improvements (From News Shopper)
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BROMLEY: Cycling casualties increase despite overall improvements
7:00am Thursday 28th May 2009 in
THE numbers of cyclists getting killed or injured in Bromley have increased by nearly 50 per cent, according to accident figures.
But the latest Transport for London statistics show the total number of people killed or injured on the roads has decreased for the second year running.
Including pedestrians, there were a total of 865 casualties involved in road accidents last year compared to 900 in 2007.
The number of cyclists killed or injured rose from 45 in 2007 to 67 last year.
The biggest improvement saw a nine per cent decrease in the number of car drivers and passengers injured in accidents - from 549 people in 2007 to 498 last year.
However, there were still 14 fatal road accidents last year - double the 2007 total.
Portfolio holder for the environment Councillor Colin Smith said: "Obviously one tragedy remains one tragedy too many so we should start by acknowledging that the spike in deaths from the 10 year low recorded in 2007 is obviously disappointing.
“What we therefore must and will continue to focus on is reducing all death and injury accidents across the borough which will help to drive down all three categories."
He added: “Without anybody ever being allowed to become complacent, it is a matter of record that Bromley's accident statistics fell to a modern time low in 2007, a figure we have just seen lowered further still in 2008.”
The TfL report shows the total numbers of casualties decreased by two per cent in outer London but increased by two per cent in inner London.
Meanwhile, numbers of cyclist casualties showed a six per cent increase in inner London, and a 12 per cent increase in outer London.
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BROMLEY: Cycling casualties increase despite overall improvements
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Cllr Colin Smith says...
12:09pm Thu 28 May 09
For anyone who is interested in this story the full quote that had to be edited for space reasons was :
"Obviously one tragedy remains one tragedy too many so we should start by acknowledging that the spike in deaths from the 10 year low
recorded in 2007 is obviously disappointing.
Stepping back from the obvious and understandable emotions involved in every case though, the margins between death and serious injury, and between serious injury and slight are notoriously fickle and random, especially on such thankfully small numbers.
What we therefore must and will continue to focus on is reducing all death and injury accidents across the Borough which will help to drive
down all three categories.
Without anybody ever being allowed to become complacent, it is a matter of record that Bromley's accident statistics fell to a modern time
low in 2007, a figure we have just seen lowered further still in 2008, so considerable praise is due to the Emergency Services and Road Safety Unit who have helped bring about these improvements.
Given the ongoing intelligent targeting of vulnerable user groups such as cyclists and newly qualified drivers in conjunction with more enforcement and engineering solutions over the coming year, I am extremely hopeful that we will improve further still on this in 2009"