From the London Evening Standard 29 June 2012- http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-pedestrian-deaths-and-cycle-injuries-soar-7899270.html -Campaigners demanded a change in road safety policies today after a 33 per cent increase in pedestrian deaths in a year and the highest number of cycling injuries for a decade.
Transport for London admitted the figures were “an area of concern” for itself and the Mayor but critics questioned whether his policies of removing traffic lights and “smoothing traffic flow” were to blame.
Official statistics showed 77 pedestrians were killed last year, 19 more than in 2010, while 16 cyclists lost their lives — nine the victims of turning lorries.
The number of cycling fatalities was the biggest since 2006. There were 555 serious injuries to cyclists — up 21 per cent on last year and the highest figure since TfL records began in 2002 — and an 11 per cent rise to 3,926 in slight injuries reported by bike riders.
The KSI (killed and seriously injured) figure TfL uses to measure its performance against road safety targets rose 22 per cent to 571 cases — more than double the nine per cent year-on-year increase in cycling on main roads.
Cycling deaths last year included Svitlana Tereschenko, killed at Bow roundabout, and Daniel Cox, who died at Dalston Junction. In both cases, criminal prosecutions were abandoned and coroners refused to blame the lorry drivers involved because the cyclists were in their “blind spots”.
Jenny Jones, a Green member of the London Assembly, said that since 2008 Boris Johnson had reversed a nine-year downward trend in road casualties.
“The Mayor more than halved the road safety budget, re-phased traffic lights and told his road engineers to prioritise motorists’ journey times over the safety of vulnerable road users, so an increase was inevitable,” she said.
Tony Armstrong, chief executive of Living Streets which wants 20mph limits across London, said: “We remain deeply concerned that measures introduced under the ‘smoothing traffic flow’ programme seem to have greater priority than road safety measures. “One area where this is having a negative impact is the removal of pedestrian crossings across the capital.”
TfL says it is reviewing cycle safety “as a matter of urgency” but officials today ruled out any rethink of the ‘smoothing traffic flow’ policy.
Garrett Emmerson, chief operating officer for surface transport, said: “The measures deliver benefits to all road users without compromising safety.”
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