Road Safety

 A major new road safety partnership campaign, aimed at significantly cutting the number of people killed and seriously injured on local roads, was launched at Kingston Maurward College on 15 January 2010.

 Over the coming year, the 'no excuse' project will combine extra police and safety camera enforcement on the roads with hard-hitting publicity and education campaigns in a joint effort to reduce the suffering caused by bad and careless driving in the county.

 The initiative is being led by Dorset Road Safe, a partnership including Dorset County Council, Dorset Police, Dorset Fire and Rescue, Dorset Safety Camera Partnership, NHS Dorset, the South Western Ambulance Trust, the Highways Agency and Bournemouth and Poole borough councils.

 For more information visit the new Dorset Road Safe website.

 The Road Safety Team aim to reduce the number and severity of road accidents on Poole's Roads through engineering and education.

Reporting highway safety issues

If you wish to notify us about problems regarding a highway enforcement problem, please contact us on (01202) 265255. Alternatively you can complete our online form to report a road or pavement obstruction. Obstructions caused by licenced motor vehicles on the highway (e.g. blocking access to a driveway) are dealt with by the Police, who can be contacted on (01202) 222222.

Reporting a carriageway defect

If you wish to report a defect on the carriageway please complete our report It form linked in the right hand side of this page.

It will help us if you can provide as much detail as possible such as:

• Street name and adjacent property number
• type of defect and extent of damage
• If vandalism or road traffic collision, car registration details, Police Incident No. and date witnessed
• Your name and contact number.

This form is the best way to contact us during office hours (08:30 - 17:15 Monday to Thursday and 08:30 - 16:45 on Friday), alternatively, you may call us on 01202 265255. In the case of an emergency out of office hours, please call 0800 506050.

Casualty Reduction Targets

In March 2000, the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions set a new target (Road Safety Strategy) "to reduce road accident casualties by the year 2010 so that we achieve:

• A 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents;
• A 50% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured, and
• A 10% reduction in the slight casualty rate.

Road Accident Casualties in Poole

  All Ages Casualties

Child Casualties 

Details of reported Road Traffic Collisions involving personal injury in Poole are collated by Dorset Police.

The 2008 Statistics for Poole

Note: "casualty refers to an accident resulting in personal injury which can be fatal, serious or slight.

Child Casualties:

Under 5 Years: 2 pedestrian, 3 car passengers

5-15 years: 15 pedestrians (2 serious), 12 cyclists, 13 car passengers.

General

• 78% occurred on dry roads
• 69% occurred at or near a junction (Of which only 10% at traffic signal junctions)
• 73% occurred in daylight
• 89% occurred in fine weather
• Worst Time of Day: 4pm-5-m (53 accidents)
• Worst Day of the Week: Wednesday (74 accidents/17%)
• Worst Month in 2008: November & December (43 accidents each/10%

What people were doing when accidents happened

• Car Driving - 40%
• Motorbike Riding - 19%
• Car Passengers - 16%
• Cycling - 13%
• Walking - 9%

Vehicle Manoeuvres:

• Stopping or stationary - 16%
• Turning right - 14%
• Overtaking or changing lanes - 10%
• Going ahead - 53%

Trends (casualties) in Poole

Driver Training

We support the work of a number of advanced driving groups like the Institute of Advanced Motorists and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA).

The following links may also be useful:

 Dorset County Council

Department for Transport

Driving Standards Agency

LARSOA

AIRSO

Community Transport Association  

Further information on minibus driver training can be obtained from the council's Passenger Transport Section.  

See Pass Plus Poole (for younger drivers) for further information and an application pack.

See Drive 55 Plus (for older drivers) for further information or to book a place.

Advice on driver training is available to all local organisations who wish to improve the driving standards of their employees.

Benefits for employers;

The benefits of driver training for the employer include both tangible and non-tangible elements such as:

• Reduced crash and injury rates for employees
• Potential reduction in insurance premium
• Reduced down time
• Savings in fleet running costs, including maintenance and fuel
• Reduced environmental impact on the local and wider community, leading to improved leading to improved quality of life for all
• Enhanced environmental profile
• Reduced health & safety problems
• Fulfilling health & safety obligations
• Sharing information outside your immediate circle of clients

Benefits for employees

Your employees may benefit from the following:

• Reduced risk
• Increased confidence
• Reduced stress levels
• Reduced conflict
• Sharing information with friends and family
• Having a greater awareness of their responsibility to other road users and of health & safety issues while on the road
• A sense of personal responsibility to themselves as well as to others
• Improved personal fuel economy
• Reduced insurance claims
• Potentially a reduction in insurance premiums