Rural Safety Management (1999)
November 1 1999
In Great Britain 59% of fatalities occur on rural roads and 32% of all injuries in road traffic accidents. Nevertheless there are major differences in the frequency of rural road accidents across the country, reflecting both the different lengths of speed limits and differences in risk. Simple breakdown of statistics indicates the two major problems for rural roads.
Firstly, the majority of casualties occur on A Class roads and Motorways: in GB in 1998, 74% of fatalities and 68% of all casualties. On these roads, about three-fifths of casualties occur where the speed limit is 60 miles/h, and one-third where it is 70 miles/h (dual carriageways). On the lower class roads, 97 percent occur on 60 miles/h roads. However, exposure to risk on the different classes of road is also important. Lower class roads have higher casualty rates per veh-km than Motorways or Class A roads. Furthermore, forecasts suggest that traffic flow is likely to increase more on rural than on urban roads.
Secondly, 84% of all fatalities on rural roads and 95% of all casualties occur to drivers or passengers of motor vehicles (mainly cars). This is a very different picture from that on urban roads where pedestrian fatalities and casualties dominate. Nevertheless pedestrians make up 10% of all deaths on rural roads, and 2% of casualties.
There are also important road safety issues for the small villages or townships (of population less than 3000) subject to 30 or 40 miles/h which lie basically in rural areas.
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