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news
Jenny Jones.jpg_large.jpgBaroness Jenny Jones says police cuts to blame for increased danger on roads
Baroness Jenny Jones has warned that austerity is to blame for increasingly dangerous roads in the UK.
Pointing out that we have lost a quarter of traffic police personnel since cuts began in 2010, the Green Party peer said that there is a link between austerity and increased danger on the roads.
She added that new figures show that the number of people who were killed or seriously injured (KSI) on the roads in 2016 has risen.
She said: “The Government has caveated the rise in serious injuries by saying that the police under-reported such injuries in previous years and suggest that the number remains virtually unchanged.
“However, the flatlining of KSI figures since 2010 contrasts with a 16% decline in the 5 years prior to austerity starting in 2010 and far bigger declines in the years before that.”
She went on to say that the number of wounded and killed vulnerable road users including cyclists, pedestrians and those on motorbikes, has gone up to levels not seen since 2008.
Baroness Jones said: "Today’s horrendous casualty figures show the urgent need to reverse the cuts to traffic police, enforce the rules of the road and provide genuine justice for the victims of dangerous and careless driving. Cutting the number of traffic police by over a quarter was always going to lead to less enforcement of certain offences and an increased reliance on cameras.
"An increasing number of drivers are getting away with causing death and serious injury, as overstretched police failed to investigate or pursue people. Hit and runs are at epidemic levels, while the victims struggle to find justice.
“The solution is simple, increased funding for more traffic police and also teams of specialist investigators who can ensure all road deaths and serious injuries are properly dealt with. Put the government cuts into reverse.”
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12 comments
Police have their hands full with dangerous kids pulling wheelies.
I'm hoping they don't clamp down on the wheelie kids going up and down my street - it's made the bus drivers think again and slow down to the 20mph they're supposed to be doing.
The wheelie kids in my area are already where people are careful as they don't want to be known as the driver who mowed down a school kid.
obviously, not doing wheelies on the way to school, as the school run drivers are mental.
It is not as simple as 'police cuts = more danger on the roads'.
I like the Italian system, the have a dedicated Road Traffic Police (Polizia Stradale) who enforce road traffic laws more cost effectively than having regular/full-on Police Officers do it.
We have to find cheaper ways of enforcing road traffic laws in this country. It's bonkers having full-on, very well paid Police Officers giving drivers tickets for things like using a mobile while driving when it could be done by another group of people ... especially in this age of video evidence.
They have traffic laws in Italy? I never knew that, just assumed it was legal to wheelie mopeds down pavements, scrape cars with gay abandon, go where you please down one way streets, over pedestrian crossings and through pedestrian precincts.
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They have traffic laws in Italy? I never knew that, just assumed it was legal to wheelie mopeds down pavements, scrape cars with gay abandon, go where you please down one way streets, over pedestrian crossings and through pedestrian precincts.
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Fiat cars; designed by computer, built by robots, driven by maniacs.
the greens should sex up their image a bit to get more votes - I'm thinking Idi Amin style military uniforms (the green one, of course) and frogmarching - then when they get more power they could ban all use of fossil fuels, enforced by death squads on pushbikes - maybe have our power generated by turbo trainers with an 8 hour day mandatory minimum for anyone over the age of 10...
in short, more austerity, not less.
You don't know what austerity is, and you don't know what the Green Party is, as vividly demonstated with that idiotic comment.
#show the love!
Just common sense really. Politicians instead of promising new laws whether for cyclists or drivers should make sure the current ones are properly enforced.
Well said! The tories really don't care about the safety of plebs on bikes, Labour seem to be at least getting interested, but the Greens really know the value of cycling.
The benefits of mass participation cycling are so huge for the country that it really shouldn't be a political item, but it is, so perhaps cyclists have to be too.