Safety summit to address deaths on Lincolnshire’s roads
Lincolnshire’s first road safety summit to address the tragic number of serious injuries and deaths on Lincolnshire’s roads will take place this autumn.
The event – at a venue to be arranged – has been organised at the bidding of the county’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones to examine innovative ways to tackle a problem which has plagued the county for decades.
It is tragic that so many of our residents, both young and old, are losing their lives on the roads of Lincolnshire
The summit will bring together experts, key stakeholders, community groups, charities and enforcement agencies to look at best practice and pioneering projects from around the UK and Europe.
South Holland and the Deepings MP John Hayes, who is also Minister of State for Transport, will attend the conference on November 3, which is being organised in conjunction with Lincolnshire Police and Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership – the latter jointly funded by the PCC and Lincolnshire County Council.
It will focus on how road safety can be addressed through education, engineering and enforcement; examine projects that work and the specific challenges facing Lincolnshire.
Among the projects showcased at the event will be Operation Snap, the Welsh Force’s initiative to get the public to provide dashcam video of incidents they witness on the road to allow police to take appropriate action.
The PCC has already pledged to transform and extend Lincolnshire’s existing Community Speed Watch scheme. The scheme, started in 2014, currently operates in 170 of the 507 parishes across Lincolnshire and largely involves placing portable speed notification signs in speeding hot spots.
The new improved Speed Watch will see a vastly enhanced project, with local residents given appropriate training and radar guns to check the speed of passing motorists.
Drivers caught exceeding the limit will receive a warning letter together with road safety advice but this could be extended in the future to include enforcement action against the worst offenders.
Fifty nine people were killed on Lincolnshire’s roads in 2016 and 441 have been seriously injured in the past 12 months – the worst record since 2007 when 79 died.
“It is tragic that so many of our residents, both young and old, are losing their lives on the roads of Lincolnshire,” said Mr Jones.
“We have 5,500 miles of road travelled by HGVs, cars and agricultural vehicles as well as cyclists, horse riders and pedestrians and they all deserve consideration.
“I am determined to tackle this issue by learning from experience elsewhere, exploring innovation from across Europe and seeing whether we can extend schemes that already have a proven track record.
“There will be no easy solutions but that should not stop us doing everything we can to keep our communities safe.”
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