vulnerable road-pavement users they run down.
Nonsense, never heard of the Euro NCAP tests which include a star rating for pedestrian safety? That shows a steady improvement in car design since it began. Fewer rests and serious injuries occur to pedestrains in the UK. See Road Casulaties Great Britain: 2004 Annual Report at dfttransstats041304.pdf, which shows at Table 1j on page 15 that the number of pedestrian rests in 2004 was 33% below the average for 1994- 1998, with serious injuries down 36% and slight injuries down 25%. For pedal cycles the rest rate was down 28%, serious injuries down 39% and slight injuries down 31%.
From the Transport Statistics Bulletin 2004, which is at dfttransstats038554.pdf, Table 3. Total road rests in 1996 were 3,598 and in 2004 they were down to 3,221. A drop of 10.5%. Serious injuries in 1996 were 44,499 and in 2004 they were only 31,130. A drop of 30%. The number of slight injuries was down from 272,481 to 246,489. Which is a reduction of 8.5%. Now do you believe me that road rests are down and serious injuries are substantially down over the last 10 years or so? The lower reduction in slight injuries suggests that although there are less accidents, the safety features are reducing the severity of injury to those who are never the less involved in an accident.
Before you ask, the number of accidents is reported in Table 2 of my first reference as 236,000 in 1996 and 207,000 in 2004. A reduction of 12.3%.
Why can you never accept that despite more vehicles travelling further, road rests and injuries are down in absolute terms. This includes vulnerable groups such as pedestrians and cyclists. Can you produce any verifiable numbers from a reliable source to show this is not the case?
s being overtaken 73Adrian sounding much like they were saying : What is wrong with people - I drove correctly and safely - Maybe the van driver didn't see it that way. If...
Ian
