BOURNEMOUTH has been ‘named and shamed’ as having one of the worst road safety records in the country.

The council has been placed as the second worst performing authority in its attempt to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on roads in the borough.

Comparing average statistics from 1994 to 1998 with 2006 to 2010 Bournemouth Borough Council saw just a three per cent reduction in the number of fatal or serious crashes.

This falls massively behind the 70 per cent drop recorded in Halton in Cheshire.

The statistics, published in a road safety report by the House of Commons Transport Select Committee, show huge discrepancies in the casualty rate reductions among authorities.

It comes in the wake of recently published figures that revealed the first increase in road fatalities since 2003, with 1,901 people killed on the roads last year.

This week the Daily Echo reported that 13 people lost their lives on Dorset’s roads in the first seven months of this year. Last year 18 lives were claimed in fatal collisions in the county.

And more have suffered injury.

Dawid Malak and Karolina Wisniewska are lucky to be alive after a horror smash on the A338 Spur Road last month. Their broken down car was hit by another vehicle, throwing Dawid into the air and dragging Karolina along underneath the car.

Dawid, 28, who lives in Charminster said a combination of factors caused the crash but added: “If there had been a hard shoulder it would never have happened.

“There was smoke pouring out of my car but I could not get it out of the way.”

Speaking about Bournemouth’s three per cent reduction, John Satchwell, Bournemouth’s road safety manager, said: “Despite the reported figures we are pleased there continues to be a fall in the number of those killed and seriously injured on Bournemouth’s roads.

“Bournemouth Council is committed to reducing the number of those killed and seriously injured on our roads and we are continuing to see a downward trend in these statistics.” He said the council invested over £325,000 a year on projects to improve safety on Bournemouth’s roads and worked closely with Dorset Road Safe Partnership in running campaigns and identifying key safety issues.

Mr Satchwell added: “Bournemouth has successfully been awarded significant investment from the government’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund.

“This investment will see a three-year programme of initiatives to improve travel across Bournemouth, and road safety initiatives will be a key feature of those improvement activities.

RESOURCES ALLOCATED

  •  June 2012: Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset were allocated £12.1million by the government’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund.
  •  May 2012: Bournemouth Borough Council was successfully allocated £4.6million funding from the government’s Local Sustainable Transport Fund.
  •  March 2012: In March 2012 the Department for Transport awarded £3.4 million towards improving local bus travel in South East Dorset.

RECORD OF SHAME

BAD

  •  Doncaster 0% reduction
  •  Bournemouth 3%
  • Redcar and Cleveland 8%
  • Brighton and Hove 11%
  • Calderdale 14%
  • Bristol 16%
  • Southampton 17%
  •  Bury 18%
  • East Sussex 19%

GOOD

  • Halton in Cheshire 70%
  • Coventry 66%
  •  Telford and Wrekin 65%
  • Blackpool 63%
  •  Barking and Dagenham 63%
  •  Shropshire 62%
  • Brent 60%
  • Hillingdon 60%