22 Jan The number of people killed or seriously injured on Essex’s roads fell last year
The number of people killed or seriously injured on Essex’s roads fell last year.
46 people died and 861 were seriously injured following collisions in the county in 2017 – down from 64 deaths and 970 serious injuries in 2016.
Adam Pipe, Casualty Reduction Manager, said: “It’s obviously really positive that fewer people are being hurt or killed on our roads but the number is still far too high and we will continue to work with our partner agencies to make Essex even safer.
“Our most vulnerable road users are drivers and passengers aged between 17 and 25, motorcyclists, older drivers, and pedestrians and we will be focussing our engagement, enforcement and education work towards them.
“The M11 is still the route where we see the highest number of collisions and, alongside our partners, we’ll keep working to make it safer.
“We also continue to see people drink driving with 1,061 people arrested for it last year – a rise from 2016. This is unacceptable and will again be a focus for us in the coming 12 months.”
2017 saw key changes to national legislation including an increase in the penalty for using a mobile phone behind the wheel in March. Since the beginning of March, we have dealt with more than 2,000 mobile phone offences.
A number of exciting projects were also started or were revitalised last year to help make the county’s roads safer.
