View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by LJMU Research Online Avoidable Mortality in Cumbria - A Review of 73 Fatal Road Traffic Collisions April 2015 Rachel E Brown 1 Acknowledgements The author would like to thank the following people from Cumbria Constabulary Collision Investigation Unit: Inspector Phil Davidson, Sergeant Graeme Hodgson, PC Diane Bowman, PC Mark Dempster, PC Ian Hanson, PC Craig Irving, PC Mark Andrew Jordan, PC Mike Lazonby, PC Shaun McKeown, PC Phil Murray, PC Steven Wakefield, PC Richard Wiejak, and Inspector Joanne House. Thanks also to Colin Cox, Claire King, Dr Jane Mathieson, and Chris Broadbent from Cumbria County Council, and Dr Gordon Hay and Dr Hannah Timpson from the Centre of Public Health. Centre for Public Health Liverpool John Moores University Henry Cotton Building 15-21 Webster Street Liverpool L3 2ET Telephone: 0151 231 4542 Email: [email protected] Website: www.cph.org.uk 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... 2 List of Figures ................................................................................................................... 5 List of Tables .................................................................................................................... 6 Definitions and Terminology ............................................................................................. 7 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................... 9 1. Executive Summary ..................................................................................................10 2. Introduction.............................................................................................................13 3. Report Outline .........................................................................................................14 4. National Policy Context Overview..............................................................................15 4.1 Making Roads Safer ................................................................................................15 4.2 Strategic Framework for Road Safety .......................................................................15 4.3 Drug Driving Legislation ..........................................................................................16 5. Road Safety Agencies in Cumbria...............................................................................17 5.1 The Cumbria Road Safety Partnership......................................................................17 5.2 Cumbria Casualty Reduction and Safer Highways Group ...........................................17 5.3 Cumbria Collision Investigation Unit ........................................................................17 5.4 Cumbria Roads Policing Unit ...................................................................................17 5.5 Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service .............................................................................18 5.6 North West Ambulance Service ...............................................................................18 5.7 North West Air Ambulance Charity ..........................................................................18 5.8 Great North Air Ambulance: The Pride of Cumbria ...................................................18 5.9 Birbeck Emergency Equipment for Patients (BEEP) Fund ...........................................19 5.10 The Highways Agency, Cumbria County Council......................................................19 6. Sources of Road Fatality Data ....................................................................................19 6.1 STATS19.................................................................................................................19 6.2 Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC)...................................................19 7. National Road Fatality STATS19 Overview ..................................................................20 7.1 Road Traffic Collision Fatality Trend.........................................................................20 7.2 Road Traffic Collision Fatalities by Road User Type ...................................................21 3 7.3 Drink Drive Fatalities ..............................................................................................21 7.4 Common Contributory Factors ................................................................................22 8. Cumbria Road Fatality STATS19 Overview ..................................................................22 8.1 Road Traffic Collision Fatality Trend.........................................................................22 8.2 Fatal Collisions in Urban-Rural Areas .......................................................................23 9. HSCIC Indicator Overview .........................................................................................24 9.1 Killed and Seriously Injured (KSI) in RTCs Trend ........................................................24 9.2 Mortality from Land Transport Accidents Trend .......................................................24 9.3 Mortality form Land Transport Collisions by Local Authority .....................................26 10. Review of 50 Fatal Road Traffic Collisions in Cumbria..............................................27 10.1 Aims....................................................................................................................27 10.2 Methods ..............................................................................................................27 10.2.1 Data Source ...................................................................................................27 10.2.2 Case File Selection ..........................................................................................28 10.2.3 Data Collection...............................................................................................28 10.2.4 Data Analysis .................................................................................................28 11.2.5 Data Protection and Confidentiality.................................................................29 10.3 Results .................................................................................................................30 10.3.1 Individual Demographic Characteristics ...........................................................30 10.3.2 Fatal Road Traffic Collision Characteristics .......................................................33 10.3.3 Common Themes ...........................................................................................34 10.3.4 Fatal RTC Hotspot Areas .................................................................................54 10.3.5 Prevention of Future Death Reports ................................................................56 10.3.6 STATS19 Data Errors .......................................................................................57 10.3.7 Medical Conditions or Disabilities....................................................................57 10.4 Discussion ............................................................................................................59 10.5 Conclusions ..........................................................................................................63 10.6 Recommendations................................................................................................64 11. References ...........................................................................................................66 12. Appendix 1 ...........................................................................................................69 4 List of Figures Figure 1: Trend of Road Fatalities in Great Britain, 1991 - 2013...........................................20 Figure 2: Percentage (%) of drivers and riders killed who were over the legal blood alcohol limit, Great Britain, 1993 – 2012 .......................................................................................22 Figure 3: Trend of Road Fatalities in Cumbria, 2005 - 2013 .................................................23 Figure 4: Trend of fatal RTCs in Cumbria according to urban-rural area classification of the collision location, 2005 – 2013..........................................................................................23 Figure 5: Crude rate per 100,000 population of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) in road traffic collisions, Cumbria and England, 2002 – 2012..........................................................24 Figure 6: Trend of directly standardised rate (per 100,000 population) of mortality from road traffic collisions in Cumbria, England and North West, 1996 – 2012 ....................................25 Figure 7: Trend of directly standardised rate (per 100,000 population) of mortality from road traffic collisions in Cumbria, England and North West, three year averages 2008-10 – 2010- 12 ...................................................................................................................................25 Figure 8: Directly standardised rate (per 100,000 population) of mortality from road traffic collisions by local authority area in Cumbria compared to England and North West, 2010-12 .......................................................................................................................................26