A £47.5m funding injection to improve safety on 27 of the UK’s most high-risk roads has been announced by the Department for Transport.
The funding will pay for safety improvements such as re-designing junctions and improving signage and road markings to help reduce the risk of collisions and in turn reduce congestion, journey times and emissions.
“We’re injecting £47.5 million so that local councils around the country have the support they need to keep everyone safe, while reducing congestion and emissions and supporting local economies,” said Transport Secretary, Mark Harper.
The allocation of £47.5 million to 27 different schemes has been based on data independently surveyed and provided by the Road Safety Foundation. The data analysed is based on a road safety risk, looking at data on those killed and seriously injured alongside traffic levels.
The funding is the third round of the Safer Roads Fund programme. Previous rounds focused on treating the 50 highest-risk local ‘A road’ sections in England with enhanced road safety engineering interventions. The scheme is set to prevent around 1,450 fatal and serious injuries over the next 20 years.
According to Road Safety Foundation analysis, early estimates suggest that the £47.5 million investment should prevent around 760 fatal and serious injuries over the next 20 years, with a benefit to society of £420 million.
