New £100k fund and co-ordinated attempt to reduce road deaths in Cambridgeshire

Chief officers will rubber stamp the commitment at a conference being held by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Road Safety Partnership at Huntingdon Race Course on Friday (February 26).

The event at Huntingdon Race Course will feature speeches by Gillian Beasley, chief executive of Cambridgeshire county and Peterborough city councils, Dr Liz Robin, director of public health at the county council and Peterborough City Council, Mark Turner, chief executive of the Road Victims Trust and Dr Simon Lewis, clinical director at the East of England Trauma Network.

The conference will also see Police and Crime Commissioner Sir Graham Bright launch a road safety casualty reduction and support fund, which will provide about £100,000 annually to support the partnership’s work.

Provisional figures show that last year, 34 people were killed in collisions on the county’s roads, while 309 people were seriously injured and 2256 people were slightly injured.

Cllr Steve Criswell, chair of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Road Safety Partnership, said: “This conference and declaration represents a commitment by all agencies to work together to prevent collisions and reduce the impact and severity of those that do happen.

“Every death and life-changing injury which happens as a result of a collision on Cambridgeshire’s roads is one too many.”

The declaration, to be signed on the day by Chief Constable Alec Wood, Sir Graham Bright, Acting Chief Fire Officer Chris Strickland, Dr Robin and Ms Beasley, states: “We want to reduce the number of collisions on our roads and therefore the number of people killed or seriously injured as a result and the subsequent impact on individuals, their families and the community.”

It then sets out the ways this will be achieved, including prevention and early intervention, speed limits and road layout, providing a swift and joined-up response to collisions, and supporting victims and their families.

At the conference, there will be a “question time” session in which attendees will be invited to question chiefs.

The conference coincides with a THINK! campaign targeting drug driving, which runs throughout February and March in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire.

Officers from the Road Policing Unit are conducting an increased number of checks in an effort to stop drug drivers.

Road deaths

2011 - 33

2012 - 31

2013 - 36

2014 - 30

2015 – 34 (provisional)

People seriously injured

2011 - 380

2012 - 350

2013 - 357

2014 - 365

2015 - 309 (provisional)

People slightly injured

2011 - 2777

2012 - 2699

2013 - 2359

2014 - 2329

2015 - 2256 (provisional)