Police choose right time to patrol A500
POLICE patrols are travelling along a key road during its most accident-prone times to try and cut the number of collisions.
Officers from Stoke-on-Trent division's road crime team set out to reduce the number of people killed or injured on the A500, particularly between Hanford and Etruria.
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SAFETY FIRST: A police car on the A500 yesterday. Picture: Mark Scott
They found most collisions were happening when people were travelling home from work, between 3pm and 6pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Sergeant Ian Revans said: "In 2009 police attended 300 incidents on that stretch of the D-road, ranging from fatalities to minor collisions.
"We found the vast majority happened at busy times when people were on their way home from work, and perhaps not really concentrating on their driving.
"We decided to do more patrol work at that time to try to reduce people's speed and make them concentrate more."
The operation has shown signs of success over the first two months of the year, so officers plan to continue it.
In January and February 2008, there were 23 incidents on the targeted four-mile stretch of road, while in the same period this year there were 13.
Sgt Revans, pictured, said: "Not only are we hopefully reducing the number of people injured, but it's also freeing up officers' time. Even a minor collision on the A500 would keep three or four officers there for at least an hour each, plus the paperwork afterwards.
"Investing one officer in doing these patrols is saving time if it reduces incidents."
The last fatal accident on the A500 was on November 14, when 18-year-old Nathan Foreman, from Fenton, died when his car hit a tree in the central reservation, close to the MFI roundabout in Etruria, as he travelled home from a night out.
Cabbie Dave-Burgess Pearson, from Bucknall, said he had seen a difference on the A500. He said: "I have noticed a high presence of police there. It can be a dangerous road and anything that cuts accidents is good."
Sgt Revans said the number of people killed or seriously injured in accidents across Stoke-on-Trent division had been reduced following the team's work on road safety.
In 2007, 86 people were killed or seriously injured on the division's roads. This fell to 35 in 2008, against the Government's national target of 80.
Despite a slight rise to 40 in 2009, the figure was still below the target of 75. This year's target is 70, and in the first two months of 2010 there were six.
He said: "We haven't had a fatality since November last year, and we haven't had a child fatality since August 2007.
"A lot of that is down to work we are doing in schools with Stoke-on-Trent City Council. We've also done targeted enforcement on issues like drink driving, seatbelt use, using mobile phones while driving and speeding.
"We've got 14 Community Speedwatch schemes in place and will be expanding that this year."
23 Comments
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by john, Stoke on trent
Thursday, March 11 2010, 2:26PM
“Mick,you drive at 29mph the car behind you at 27 mph and so on and the rest of us may as well walk,no only kidding there mick,me i drive to the conditions ie open roads where there little traffic!!no thick pedestrian who think they are bullet proof ect then its does really make for a relaxing motoring !!!oh and with a bit of help from two of my little friends Mr bell euro 500 and Mrs bell RX65!!happy motoring!! mick you bet.”
by Mick Penning, newcastle, staffs
Thursday, March 11 2010, 12:21PM
“And as far as the revenue is concerned from the 'cash-crop' -the more the better.
Fill the coffers with the money collected from the criminals is my philosophy.
Helps keep the Car Tax down.”
by Mick Penning, newcastle, staffs
Thursday, March 11 2010, 12:18PM
“Ian, you don't have to 'drive with your eye constantly on the speedo.
As any 'experienced Driver will tell you, you 'feel the speed' -with occasional checked reference to the dashboard.
As for 'how do you know' -it's easy to answer. If, like me, you obey the speed limit all the time, you have 'all the time' to take in the signs as you approach each 'speed zone'.
I never had a problem of knowing what the speed limit was, as I drove in a relaxed manner along the Queen's Highway. Never.
If I tell you that after driving my car to work (in passing the 22 cameras, safely, i then climbed into a 44 ton truck and drove all day, passed even more cameras, and still kept a clean driving licence.... Not one point on it.
You can make excuses 'til the cows come home, but none of them wash.... not with me anyway.”
by anon, at work
Thursday, March 11 2010, 10:01AM
“Nigel Biddulph....I have to agree with you..... the speed cameras are making a fortune at the moment on the A500 Porthill to Etruria....I know that for a fact!”
by Ian, Stoke-on-Trent
Thursday, March 11 2010, 9:42AM
“Mick, you say you don't speed? How do you know unless you drive everywhere with your nose on your speedo. You'd be far safer looking out of the windscreen! What about when you're in a unfamiliar area with poorly signed speed limit changes (e.g. 30mph zones don't have repeaters!. Speed only makes accidents worse. Bad driving is the more likely cause.”