‘Safer’ 20mph speed zones led to rise in number of road deaths

REDUCING the speed limit to 20mph has caused a rise in death and serious injuries, a council has admitted.

Bath and North East Somerset council spent £871,000 bringing in the 13 new speed zones a year ago. However, a report has found that deaths and serious injuries have gone up in seven of the 20mph zones. The figure was unchanged in four zones and fell in two.

The review of the traffic control measures warns that it is a problem nationally, saying that, although there was no “simple explanation”, it could be that people believed 20mph areas were safer so took less care crossing roads or cycling. Despite the findings, the council is refusing to reverse the scheme for cost reasons.

Patrick Anketell-jones, the deputy leader, said there was no money available to reverse the zones, even though the report said there was “little in the way of persuasive argument for continuing the programme in the future”. The Conservative councillor said: “It has cost over £800,000 to roll out the 20mph zone and it would probably cost the same to reverse them. We just haven’t got the money.” The report adds that the rise in casualty numbers and severity of injuries would “suggest against further expansion of area-based schemes”. This is not the first warning that 20mph areas are more dangerous. In 2010, the Department for Transport reviewed the scheme in Portsmouth, one of the first cities to introduce the limits, and found the number of people killed or seriously injured on affected roads went up.

Simon Marshall, 58, a retired civil servant from Bath, called on the council to review the 20mph limit, calling it “unduly restrictive”.

A recent nationwide review of 20mph limits by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said: “Evaluation studies have demonstrated a link between the introduction of 20mph zones and subsequent reduction in casualties.”