Road Safety affects everyone in the Highlands, and the Council as Local Roads Authority, has a statutory duty, under the Road Traffic Act 1991, to prepare and carry out a programme of measures designed to promote Road Safety.
The cost in suffering and economic terms caused by road crashes is significant. Each fatality in Great Britain now costs the community £1,585,510 however the human cost of a life lost simply cannot be valued. Each serious accident costs £178,160 and each slight accident costs £13,740. The average cost of all casualties is £47,740.
Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2020
Highland Council is working towards achiveing the road safety casualty reduction targets set out in the Scottish Road Safety Framework entitled 'Go Safe on Scotland's Roads its Everyone's Responsibility: Scotland's Road Safety Framework to 2020'.
Contained within the framework, Scotland's Road Safety vision is that there will be:
"A steady reduction in the numbers of those killed and those seriously injured, with the ultimate vision of a future where no-one is killed on Scotland's roads, and the injury rate is much reduced".
The Scottish Government believe that this is an ambitious vision capable of being shared by all, and it was adopted by Highland Council in August 2009.
In order to acheive the vision the following targets have been set:
Road Safety Targets 2020 (pdf 44kb)
View the new Road Safety Framework
Achieving the 2020 targets
These are challenging targets to meet as there have been significant reductions in casualty levels since 2000. The following method of Road Safety Intervention will continue to be used:
- Education
- Engineering
- Encouragement
- Enforcement
- Partnership Working (Highland Road Safety Working Group)
Highland Road Safety Working Group
An integral part of achieving the targets is the work being carried out by the Highland Road Safety Working Group (HRSWG). Highland Council is a partner of the HRSWG which is a group of like minded organisations that have come together to co-ordinate resources in Highland to achieve a lasting reduction in road casualties. The HRSWG consists of the following agencies:
- Highland Council
- Northern Constabulary
- Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service
- Scottish Ambulance Service
- British Red Cross
- Transport Scotland
- Bear Scotland
- TranServ Scotland
The group is working on a 2010 to 2012 Action Plan that details a lengthy list of all the road safety initiatives the group is involved in. This has been mapped to the new Scottish Road Safety Framework to ensure a co-ordinated approach to meeting the new targets.
A copy of this Action Plan is available on request.
Contact Information
For further information regarding Road Safety in the Highlands please contact:-
The Highland Council
Road Safety Unit
Glenurquhart Road, Inverness
IV3 5NX
E-mail: road.safety@highland.gov.uk