'No excuse' is delivering in Dorset - 50% reduction in fatalities

reposted: http://www.roadsafetygb.org.uk/news/1324.html

'No excuse' is delivering in Dorset

Big falls in Dorset’s KSI (Killed Seriously Injured) and fatality figures are being largely attributed to ‘no excuse', a yearlong mass enforcement and publicity campaign.

Provisional casualty data produced by Dorset County Council suggests a 50% reduction in fatalities and a KSI  reduction of almost 20%, compared with the same period last year.

‘No excuse’ was launched by Dorset Road Safety Partnership in January 2010 and runs until the end of the year.

Robert Smith, road safety manager for Dorset County Council, said: "Dorset County Council has struggled to get anywhere near its KSI reduction targets in recent years, but the astonishing impact that this partnership project is having indicates we were right to replicate the approach taken by our colleagues in Essex.

“A combination of long-term, targeted mass overt and covert enforcement, supported by non-stop advertising and publicity, seems to be working."

The latest stats reveal that more than 16,000 motoring offences have been detected by the enforcement team.

Robert Smith added: “Brand awareness of ‘no excuse’ has increased to 93%. Of the 7% who said they hadn't seen or heard about it, the vast majority were visitors from outside Dorset, suggesting an astonishingly high awareness level."

As part of the ‘no excuse’ education options instead of fines and penalty points, Dorset Police have introduced an on-line seatbelt referral course.

For more information contact Robert Smith on 01305 224680.

Dorset RoadSafe 'No Excuses' Campaign

Dorset RoadSafe commenced their 'No excuse' campaign in January 2010 in an effort to reduce accidents in Dorset. The website says:-

"Dorset Road Safe is a partnership of local councils, emergency services and other organisations working together to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on Dorset’s roads.

Throughout 2010, the partnership is delivering the ‘no excuse’ project, which aims to cut the number of deaths and serious injuries on our roads by cracking down on the types of bad and careless driving and riding that cause crashes.

These include inappropriate speed, drink and drug driving, not wearing a seatbelt and distractions like using a mobile phone while driving.

'No excuse' is using a combination of additional enforcement on the roads with awareness-raising, publicity and education activities in a big effort to drive casualties down."

Follow this link to download the 'no excuse' fact sheet (276kb PDF) >


In Dorset the Killed, Serious injured and injured figures for 2008 and 2009 are given in a table.

Casualties are categorised by severity:

Fatal – injuries resulting in death within 30 days of collision occurring

Serious – over night detention in hospital (examples include paralysis, fractures, major lacerations)

Slight – examples include whiplash, sprains or minor lacerations

Based on DfT figures, the costs to the community for each severity of crash are as follows:

Fatal - £1.6million
Serious - £190,000
Slight – £19,000

Our targets for casualty reductions are set by the Department for Transport (DfT). In the government’s current road safety strategy, “Tomorrow’s Roads – Safer for Everyone”, three national casualty reduction targets are to be achieved by 2010 based on the 1994-1998 average. They are:

1. A 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) 
2. A 50% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured. 
3. A 10% reduction in the number of people slightly injured. 

The validated 2009 KSI figure for the whole of Dorset although being an improvement on the KSI figure for 2008 with a reduction of 14%, from 437 in 2008 to 376 2009, is still behind the 2010 target and is likely to place Dorset within the lower quartile of performance across Great Britain.

In order to achieve the 2010 target set by the DfT KSI casualties need to fall by 24% in 2010 based against the figure for 2009.

All casualties by month and local authority area

The table shows the number of fatal, serious and slight casualties by month split into local authority areas with a comparison of 2009 against 2008.

buckle up!

In Dorset in the first six months of the 'No Excuses' campaign more than 10,000 offences have been committed - speeding, not wearing seatbelts and using mobile phones are the most commonly detected offences. 

• majority for speeding
• 21% for not buckling up. 
• More than 680 (7%) people were caught using their mobile phones while driving.

The 'best' excuse I've heard for not wearing a seatbelt....

A woman stopped for not wearing a seatbelt: "I just had a spray on tan applied and don't want to smudge it"

Latest events from Dorset RoadSafe.