£20 million cost of road accidents

Jun 24 2011 by Jackie Grant, Dumfries Standard Friday

THE COST of road accidents in Dumfries and Galloway in the last year topped nearly £20 million.

But despite the huge cash cost to the economy, a senior police officer said this week that “a massive amount has actually been saved” over the last 12 months due to a sharp reduction in crashes.

Inspector Neil Hewitson of Dumfries and Galloway Road Policing Unit also said the region had the lowest number of fatal crashes in Scotland out of the eight police forces for 2010-11.

“Up until April, there were five fatal accidents and 62 serious accidents in Dumfries and Galloway. That’s down from seven fatal and 97 serious in 2009-10,” he said.

“That in itself is a massive amount of money being saved because we don’t need to investigate crashes in the first instance and it doesn’t cost the NHS as much.”

A fatal accident on Scotland’s roads will cost the local authority and the economy a staggering £1.9 million.

The average cost of a serious accident is around £158,000.

Inspector Hewitson said: “That includes a lot of factors such as the cost of the initial investigation with police, ambulance and fire services; the cost of recovery vehicles; possible court cases and the cost of solicitors, and the cost to insurance companies.

“It is also taken into account that the person who has died will no longer be able to contribute to society through paying taxes.”

Over the years, Inspector Hewitson has witnessed accidents he will never forget.

They include the death of a teenager from Dumfries who was a passenger in a car that crashed off the road on the A75 at Collin in February 2009.

Another “particularly harrowing” incident saw three young people die in a horror crash on the main A75 trunk road.

Two Dumfries teenagers and a 21-year-old woman from Bristol died when two cars collided causing the multiple smash in November 2006.

Inspector Hewitson recalled: “It was a scene of complete devastation. There was so much debris it looked like a plane had crashed. The sight we were met with that day will remain with us all for years to come.

“A young woman was driving along, minding her own business and then she’s killed in a crash through no fault of her own.”

Despite the A75 having a notorious reputation in the region due to the volume of traffic it carries and the number of accidents, Inspector Hewitson claims rural roads in the region can cause just as many problems.

He said: “It would surprise people the number of rural roads where accidents take place.

“The A75 carries the most freight and that can cause frustration and people overtake when it’s not safe to do so.

“There was a very good reduction in accidents last year and that’s down to a number of factors such as the engineering of roads, police enforcement, education and the fact that vehicles have more safety features these days.

“Our hope is that we can reduce the casualties to zero, but that’s a big aspiration when people make irrational decisions when they’re behind the wheel.”