Britain’s safest roads revealed by IAM

Britain’s leading road safety charity the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) has revealed the local authority areas that have performed best and worst for reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured on their roads last year.

The top three areas for reductions are Nottinghamshire, Tower Hamlets and Chester/Chester West; with some 98, 81 and 78 fewer people respectively killed or seriously injured on the roads in these local authority areas in 2013 compared to 2012.

Conversely the three worst performing areas are Lancashire, Kent and Cumbria. In Lancashire 72 more people were killed or seriously injured in 2013 compared to the previous year; in Kent it was 70 more and Cumbria 43 more.

The top ten best performing areas in the UK, according to statistics on reported casualties from the Department of Transport, are Nottinghamshire, Tower Hamlets, Chester/Chester West, Suffolk, Hackney, Staffordshire, Islington, Greenwich, Gloucestershire and Redbridge.

The bottom ten local authority areas consist of Lancashire, Kent, Cumbria, Norfolk, East Sussex, Rotherham, Wirral, Surrey, Worcester and Hampshire.

Simon Best, chief executive of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, said: “Figures will always vary from year to year but the wide variations do suggest that some councils are much better at putting measures in place that are having a marked difference in reducing the numbers of deaths and serious injuries on their roads.

“As the economy improves spending on road safety must be seen as a priority across the whole of the UK with clear strategies in place to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads. Even one death or injured person on our roads is one too many.”

The Institute of Advanced Motorists supports the raising of driving and riding standards and campaigns for increased on-road skills. The IAM also aim to inform and influence national and local government and decision makers to ensure that road safety remains a relevant topic and receives the focus and investment that it requires.

The top and bottom ten authorities, with numbers of killed or seriously injured in 2013 compared to the previous year, are as follows:

Reported KSI casualties by local authority area (2012/2013)

Biggest reductions

Biggest increases