Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

Area 6 Road Safety Reports

Road Safety Reports are prepared to assist us with the monitoring of the strategic road network.  In Area 6 this network consists of:

• M11 Junctions 6 to 9
• A1 between A1(M) and Stamford
• A11 between A14 and A47
• A12(S) between M25 Junction 28 and Ipswich
• A12(N) between Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft
• A14 between A142/Exning Junction (J37) and Felixstowe
• A47 between Peterborough and Great Yarmouth
• A120(W) Stansted (M11) to Marks Tey (A12)
• A120(E) Colchester to Harwich

We use a collection of reports to help identify improvement schemes and road safety campaigns.

Quarterly Safety Report

Until recently we reported on an annual basis. From 2010/11 Quarterly Safety Reports have been provided, which allows us to review the most recent accident data.

These reports monitor the number of personal injury accidents - slight, serious and fatal - on the Area 6 by network, route and local authority area, analysing casualty and collision numbers for each quarter, to identify any developing trends or issues.  We do not record damage only accidents, as there are inconsistencies on when these are reported.

The final quarter report for each year then analyses the latest three-year accident data for each route.  Personal injury accidents are then broken down into clusters and network links.  A cluster is defined as a length of a route up to 100 metres in length within which at least four personal injury accidents have occurred in the three-year period.

The Quarterly Safety Reports also provide us with data showing the effectiveness of improvement work already carried out.  Previous cluster sites are identified that show where accident numbers have improved and are 'Kept Under Review' or where further investigation is required.

We are also able to compare each route's statistics with the national averages and determine a route's progress towards casualty reduction targets.

The statistical accident data referred to within the Quarterly Safety Reports is not derived from national validated accident statistics but was sourced from unvalidated accident data received from local authorities.  As this data has not yet been validated by the Department for Transport, it cannot be assumed to be complete.  The requirement for up-to-date information for the production of these reports was a consideration in the decision to use this data.  As it has been sourced from local authorities we believe it is sufficiently robust to be used in this context.

You may find references in the reports to annexes containing the "latest 3-year personal injury accident data".  These are not available on our website and are not available to the general public.  This is because they contain specific accident related data, which could be used to identify individuals involved.

• Q2 Safety Report 2010 (PDF 995KB)
• Q1 Safety Report 2010 (PDF 990KB)
• Q4 Safety Report 2009 (PDF 3MB)
• 2009 Annual Safety Report (PDF 1MB)

Route Reports

The Route Reports follows on from the Safety Reports and investigate clusters and network links identified for further investigation.  The reports are broken down to county boundaries to enable closer liaison with stakeholders.

You may find references in the reports to annexes containing the "latest 3-year personal injury accident data" and "collision plots".  These are not available on our website and are not available to the general public.  This is because they contain specific accident related data, which could be used to identify individuals involved.

• 2010/11 Route Report - Cambridgeshire and Peterborough (PDF 385KB)
• 2010/11 Route Report - Essex (PDF 430KB)
• 2010/11 Route Report - Norfolk (PDF 399KB)
• 2010/11 Route Report - Suffolk (PDF 416KB)

Congestion Reduction Plan

This report has been produced to review levels of congestion on the Area 6 strategic road network.  Whilst this plan does not focus on road safety, congestion can be a factor affecting road safety.  Therefore we have decided to include this report within this page.

A variety of performance indicators have been used within the study, including Congestion Reference Flow calculations, journey time information, peak hour traffic average speed data and evidence based on local knowledge provided by the Highways Agency, Police, contractors and our customers.  These indicators have been combined to produce a list of the network links and junctions that are most susceptible to congestion within Area 6.

The report identifies network links and junctions for further investigation.

• 2010/11 Congestion Reduction Plan (PDF 492KB)

Area Safety Action Plan

The objective of the Area Safety Action Plan is to monitor the performance of Area 6 in terms of casualty reduction, to determine ways of reducing casualties further by working with various partners and evaluate the benefits of past initiatives.

The performance of Area 6 towards the National Casualty Reduction Targets is examined in Section 2.  An analysis of collision and casualty trends is undertaken in Section 3 and ways of reducing casualties in Area 6 with partnership working are detailed in Section 4.  Evaluation of past and planned initiatives is made in Section 5 and in Section 6 proposed safety initiatives are discussed.

• Area 6 2010/11 Area Safety Action Plan (3MB PDF)