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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Aims
The overall aim of this project is to identify, collate
and review published research and other information
relating to road accidents on rural roads, suggest how it
may be applied to the situation in Scotland and provide
recommendations for action. It consists of a review of
published literature, mainly from the
UK but also including some international
papers, on issues and topics related to rural road
safety.
Accidents on Scottish Rural Roads
The research found that a range of definitions are used
for 'rural' and that this may hamper decision making. The
following summarises the published statistics for accidents
on non built-up Scottish roads:
- Non built-up roads accounted for 74% of fatalities
and 52% of killed and seriously injured combined in
2003 in Scotland.
- The number of fatalities on non built-up roads has
decreased at a much lower rate than on built-up roads
over the last few years.
- Local 'B' and 'A' class roads have the highest
accident rates (per vehicle kilometre) in
Scotland.
- Fatalities on Scottish non built-up roads comprise
67% car occupants, 16% motorcyclists and 17%
others.
- Most car occupant (70%), goods vehicle occupant
(73%) and motorcyclist (62%) fatalities occur on non
built-up roads.
Rural Road Accident Factors
As with all accidents, the main factors in rural road
accidents can be split into three main groups: human
factors (driver behaviour), environment factors (the road),
and vehicle factors (defects).
The main driver behaviour factors associated with rural
road accidents are identified as follows:
- Speed and speeding - there is a clearly
established link between speed and accident frequency,
with higher speeds also leading to more severe
accidents. Young male drivers are most likely to drive
at excessive speeds.
- Alcohol and drug use - there is considerable
evidence to show the impairment effects of alcohol on
driving but no concrete evidence that drink-driving is
more prevalent in rural areas. Similarly there is
little evidence to suggest that drug-driving is more
prevalent in rural areas although it is suggested that
it will not be confined to urban areas.
- Driver fatigue and sleepiness - this is almost
exclusively a problem on rural roads due to the greater
driver stimulation on urban roads. It has long been
associated with motorways but recent research suggests
that it could be the main factor in up to 20% of
accidents on non-motorway rural roads. More work is
required to quantify the extent of the problem in
Scotland.
- Driver distraction - this can be split into
external-to-vehicle and internal-to-vehicle
distraction. There is little evidence to suggest that
external-to-vehicle distractions are a major problem on
Scottish rural roads. However, internal-to-vehicle
distraction, especially from mobile phone use, is
recognised as a potentially major problem although
there is no reported evidence that it is more prevalent
on Scottish rural roads than on urban roads.
- Seat belt usage - there is little evidence to
suggest that seat belt wearing rates are lower in rural
areas than in urban areas in Scotland.
The main road factors are identified as follows:
- The most common accident types on rural roads are
head-on, run-off-the-road and junction accidents.
- Over 97% of Scotland's road network is single
carriageway - this is a higher proportion than the rest
of Great Britain.
- Modern roads (of all types) are safer than older
designs because they contain hard-strips, safety
barriers and fewer, better designed junctions.
- Most accidents on single carriageways occur on A
roads, in 60mph speed limits away from junctions. They
tend to be more severe than accidents in built-up
areas.
- Single vehicle accidents account for around one
third of all rural single carriageway accidents. They
are most likely to occur on B or C class roads at
night, on bends and involve young drivers.
- Road width, horizontal and vertical alignment,
roadside characteristics, and junction frequency and
design are all identified as factors contributing to
rural road safety.
Other factors reviewed include:
- Darkness is recognised as being a contributor
to rural road accidents and the case for adopting
Single/Double Summer Time (
SDST) is reviewed. The literature
suggests that the adoption of
SDST would result in a slight
reduction in the number of killed and seriously injured
casualties in Scotland although the data on which the
analysis is based is limited.
- Wild animals (especially deer) are estimated
to be a factor in at least 1.5% of all injury accidents
and collisions with deer result in several fatalities
every year. The literature suggests that this problem
is likely to increase as traffic volumes increase.
- Young drivers and motorcyclists are identified
as being particularly at risk on rural roads.
- Tourist activity has been found to increase
the number of accidents in some rural tourist areas of
Scotland. However, the overall rate of accidents does
not increase significantly during tourist high season.
Additionally, there is little evidence to suggest that
foreign tourists are at greater risk than local
drivers.
- Emergency service response is identified as a
key issue in rural road accident survivability.
Interventions for rural roads
There appears to be a lack of publications dealing with
education, publicity and training interventions
specifically targeted at rural roads. However, the THINK!
Campaign has recently targeted rural road safety and some
campaigns from the
USA and Australia have been identified
although no evaluations were found.
Driver training has been found to focus on basic control
skills and there is evidence to suggest that attitude
rather than skill is related to crash involvement. This
will be particularly the case on rural roads because of
higher speeds. Driver training should therefore address
driving style and include awareness of personal skills and
their limitations.
There is a great deal of literature dealing with
engineering measures specific to rural roads. The more
important and innovative are discussed including:
- Rural speed management
- Vehicle activated signs
- Shared space and Quiet Lanes
- Self explaining roads
- Psychological traffic calming
- Safety barriers
- '2+1' layouts
The role of enforcement is discussed and it is suggested
that automatic enforcement may be particularly useful in
rural areas.
Recommendations
Further research
- Further detailed quantification of the rural road
safety problem in Scotland is required. It is
recommended that a specific in-depth examination of the
Scottish
STATS19 database, with the emphasis
on rural road issues, be carried out.
- It is recommended that a study to quantify the
extent of fatigue/sleepiness as a factor in Scottish
rural road accidents be carried out.
- A pilot publicity campaign, targeted at raising
awareness of rural road safety issues should be devised
and evaluated.
- Research should be carried out to ascertain the
potential benefits of improving emergency service
response in rural areas and identify best
practice.
Action
The following recommendations for action are made:
Short-term
- Campaigns must be part of a strategy which includes
enforcement and engineering changes. Therefore, it is
recommended that a rural road safety strategy is
developed and adopted.
- Education and publicity campaigns should continue
to target young drivers who are disproportionately
represented in rural road crashes.
- In addition, campaigns should be considered which
highlight the dangers of rural roads to all drivers and
try to erode the complacency that rural roads are safer
because there is less traffic.
- Efforts should continue to remind drivers of the
dangers of impairment, especially alcohol and
fatigue.
- Recreational motorcyclists should be targeted
through campaigns and training to reduce their risk on
rural roads.
- Additional emphasis should be given to the
potential for relatively low-cost engineering solutions
and speed management tools.
Medium and long term
- Road infrastructure should be improved to reduce
the potential for crashes and reduce the consequences
when they do occur. The
EuroRAP process provides a
consistent way of identifying high risk roads and
should be used to prioritise improvements.
- Consideration should be given to the use of
innovative engineering solutions such as cable barrier
medians on some single carriageways although it is
recommended that these be carefully evaluated before
widespread use.
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