16 killed and almost 1,000 people hurt on Shropshire's roads last year

Now a national road safety charity is calling on the Government to "reinvigorate" policing of the roads.

The charity Brake said that police forces' ability to tackle dangerous driving has been "decimated" by funding cuts in recent years.

Government statistics have revealed that 14 people were killed in accidents on roads which come under Shropshire Council in 2019, while two others died in Telford & Wrekin. In 2009, the number of deaths was 27 and six respectively.

In addition to the fatalities, last year 153 people were 'seriously injured' in accidents in Shropshire, and 43 in the smaller but more urban Telford & Wrekin area.

The provisional Department for Transport figures said that 936 people were hurt in total on roads in the county in 2019, 707 of them in Shropshire Council's area and the remaining 229 in Telford & Wrekin.

That is down on 1,137 and 508 injuries respectively in 2009.

'Stagnation'

Meanwhile in Powys, 14 people were killed on the roads last year – compared to 16 deaths ten years prior. The total number of injuries in 2019 was 467, down on 667 in 2009.

Seventy six people were killed or seriously injured on Great Britain's roads every day in 2019, on average.

The figures show that 1,748 people were killed on the roads in Great Britain last year, almost exactly the same number as in 2012 when 1,754 people were killed.

Road safety charity Brake said the statistics represented a "continued stagnation" in road safety standards.

A total of 25,975 people were also seriously injured on the country's roads, however, government statistics state that a direct comparison with previous years is not possible due to changes in how such injuries are recorded by the police.

Brake welcomed the announcement this week of the Government's £2bn project to encourage cycling and walking, but said that those who do cycle or walk are still vulnerable.

Commit

Joshua Harris, director of campaigns for Brake, said: “For nearly a decade now, we have seen an appalling stagnation in the number of deaths on our roads and it’s high-time for the government to take responsibility and act.

"We need to rid our roads of dangerous drink and drug driving, introduce safe speeds in our towns, cities and rural areas and reinvigorate roads policing, which has been decimated by funding cuts.

"The Government must commit to a Vision Zero approach and the ambition to eliminate the scourge of death and serious injury from our roads for good.

“The Government’s ambition to get more people cycling and walking is a noble one, but this will only be realised if we have safe roads that people can be confident to travel on. With 76 people being killed or seriously injured on the roads every day, 28 of which are people cycling or walking, we are a long long way from achieving this goal.”