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Road Safety is one of Somerset County Council’s key transport priorities. The government have set national targets for Local Authorities to reduce the number of people being killed or injured on our roads by 2011. Although Somerset County Council have achieved some reduction in recent years it is clear that we need to transform road safety in Somerset to deliver a ‘step change’ in reducing road casualties to meet our targets and bringing to together education, engineering and enforcement. Somerset’s Road Safety Partnership has been developed with the key stakeholders including the County Council, Police, NHS, Fire and Rescue, Safety Camera Partnership and other contributing organisations to deliver this ‘step change’.
As part of our work to improve rural road safety we have identified the worst routes in the county for numbers of injury collisions, and set these as key priorities for road safety measures. These have been named Red Routes.
We have piloted a number of new approaches to raise awareness of the importance of road safety along these routes including running workshops with interested parties and introducing driver awareness courses.
The A38 through Somerset is approximately 50km in length and is one of the first roads we are tackling in this way. There have been 723 casualties in the last 5 years, along the rural sections of the A38, between the county boundaries with Devon and through to North Somerset. Our analysis has shown that the injury collisions are spread out along this route, with a concentration at junctions and bends. In developing this study, we have also used evidence from the latest Government Think! Campaign which focuses on rural road safety issues, particularly when people drive to fast for the road conditions.
http://www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/campaigns/slowdown/ruralspeed.htm
The main collision problems are drivers and riders losing control, rear end shunts, and collisions at junctions. This emphasises the need to be cautious when approaching and negotiating junctions and bends, when travelling along the A38. Drivers also need to consider the appropriate speed and hazards ahead. There are also a high number of injury collisions involving mopeds and low powered motorcycles between Bridgwater and Highbridge and Taunton & Wellington.
In the first stage of this road safety work we have erected temporary information signs at 10 strategic locations along the route. These inform motorists of:
- The number of casualties;
- The occurrence of a road safety issue particularly at the junctions and bends;
- The intention to carry out improvements in 2008.
Following the erection of these information signs we are planning to introduce a series of consistent road safety engineering measures that have been designed to help road users to identify the key hazards along the route, so that they can react and drive appropriately.
The works have been split geographically into 4 rural sections:
- County boundary Devon to Adsborough
- Adsborough to Dunball
- Dunball to Rooksbridge
- Rooksbridge to Star
These measures will include:
- Replacement of existing damaged and worn signage;
- Installation of grey or yellow, and in some areas fluorescent prismatic, backed advance warning signage along the route, to warn of the most potential significant hazards;
- Reflective white junction marker bollards to highlight junctions on approach;
- Lining refurbishment throughout, including red central hatching at key locations and provision of new edge lines;
- Cats-eye renewal, introducing improved reflectivity.
The works are being carried out in phases. The western end of the route at the Devon County Boundary started in November 2007, and implantation of the other phases is likely to continue along the route until August 2008, subject to weather conditions.
Before Pictures
A38 Ford Street Junction - Wellington
A38 Blackbird Bends
A38 Junction with A361 at Walford Cross
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