THE PRICE OF SAFETY
Page 24
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
GOVERNMENT road spending is far too low when compared with the cost of road accidents says the Road Operators Safety Council in their annual report published last week.
The council claims the Government spent £433m on roads while accidents cost £700m in 1973 — the last year for which a comparison is available.
Too little is spent on maintenance of roads — especially with the vehicle population rising from 12m to 17m in the last 12 years, says the council.
"Without the increasing endeavour of various organisations including this council one shudders to think what the road casualty figures might have been," says the report.
Overall accident figures for 1975 showed an improvement with deaths and serious injuries falling to their lowest level for 20 years but slight injuries rose over the 1974 figures to 241,000. There were 6,350 deaths and 77,000 serious injuries.