Accidents on roads in city cost people £7.5m a year

ROAD accidents in Dundee cost locals £7.5 million a year, a new report has revealed.

In 2016, one person was killed and 28 others injured in the city, according to a study.

It showed that the financial cost to society of the accidents was £7.5m, based on the emergency service work, lost work output due to people’s injuries, medical costs and damage to property.

The details, revealed in a report by the council’s transportation chiefs, assessed progress in improving road safety across the city.

The report — written by city development director Mike Galloway and Neil Gellatly, the head of roads and transportation — said that although “significant” reductions in casualties had been achieved, the numbers were “still too high”. And it said that on top of the financial costs, there “is a real grief and suffering experienced, not only by those injured, but also by friends and families”.

It continued: “Furthermore, the perception of danger given by the occurrence of this number of casualties can provide a barrier to people’s mobility and quality of life.

“For all these reasons, it is essential that the excellent progress made in reducing casualties must be continued.”

The report came after the council revealed it had managed to hit national targets to reduce road accidents in the city, with £150,000 of work planned to introduce further road safety measures.

The council’s report said that the number of children seriously hurt on the city’s roads had dropped from an annual average of 14, between 2004 and 2008, to just six in 2015.

However, there was a rise in 2016, with eight youngsters injured.

“Analysis of these casualties shows them to predominantly involve pedestrians and cognisance of this will be taken when considering future road safety initiatives and measures,” the report added.

Meanwhile, there have been no children killed on Dundee’s local road network since 2004, though there was one fatality on the trunk road network, which the council said was “one too many”.

Slight casualty rates also dropped, from an average of more than 35 in 2004-2008 to 19.6 in 2016. Evidence suggests these usually involve injury to an adult car driver or passenger.