Category Archives: Road safety

Second deadly bus collision in Senegal in eight days kills 22 people

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More than 20 injured in incident involving a truck, after 40 died in two-bus collision in Kaffrine region

A collision between a truck and a bus in northern Senegal has killed 22 people, firefighters have said, a week after a crash between two buses left 40 people dead.

More than 20 people were injured in the latest accident, which occurred on Monday near Sakal in the Louga region, Papa Ange Michel Diatta, a colonel with the national firefighting service, told AFP. Amadou Ba, the country’s prime minister, visited the site, pledging to enforce new rules of the road.

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Amsterdam calls for crackdown on menace of souped-up e-bikes

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Demon young riders speeding at 40kph are making the Dutch city’s once cycle-friendly streets dangerous – and the problem is spreading

Debby Nieberg was cycling home from the dentist last October, when she was knocked to the pavement and broke her shoulder.

According to her police report, the youngster on an e-bike – overtaking Nieberg on Amsterdam’s narrow cycling lanes – got up and cycled off, a crime in itself. “This unfortunately has become a big part of my life because of the ‘need for speed’ of those on e-bikes,” says the 56-year-old freelance translator, who has just started cycling again. “The bike situation is definitely unsafe.”

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Thai police offer cash prizes for videos of worst road violations

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Effort to reduce new year collisions has been criticised for encouraging drivers to film others or stage violations

Thai police are taking an alternative approach to their annual road safety campaign by offering cash prizes of 10,000 baht (£240) for the best – or worst – videos of traffic violations.

About 22,000 people die each year in Thailand in road traffic accidents, one of the worst death rates in the world. The week over the new year, known locally as the “seven dangerous days”, has the biggest spike as people speed around the country.

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Israel grapples with ‘systemic problem’ of fatal road crashes

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Traffic deaths dropped by only 4.7% in last decade, compared with a 31% fall worldwide

When Islamic Jihad, the second largest militant group in the Gaza Strip, fired about 1,000 rockets at Israel during an unexpected flare-up of violence earlier this month, most were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defence system, and no Israelis were seriously hurt or killed.

On the country’s roads, however, it was a different story. In the same week, 19 people were killed in traffic incidents during a wave of particularly serious crashes.

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Registration plates and insurance for cyclists being considered by government – report

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Whitehall review is also said to suggest cycling speed limits, along with licence penalty points and fines

Bikes could be made to have registration plates and insurance as ministers weigh up bringing speed limits for cyclists into line with those for drivers.

The government is also considering the possibility of cyclists receiving licence penalty points and fines if they break speed limits or run red lights, the Daily Mail reported.

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Sleep-deprived medical staff ‘pose same danger on roads as drunk drivers’

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British anaesthetist pleads for doctors and nurses to be allowed naps and limited night shifts, as in other critical workplaces

About half of all hospital doctors and nurses have had accidents or experienced near misses while driving home after a night shift.

The risks they pose to themselves and other road users have been calculated as the same as those posed by drivers who are over the legal alcohol limit, delegates at a European medical conference were told last week.

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Police warn against vigilante action against duckling hit-and-run driver

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Driver’s details shared on social media after allegedly running over ducklings near Stoke-on-Trent as other drivers waited for them to cross

Police have urged the public against any vigilante actions after the registration of a driver who allegedly ran over a brood of ducklings was published online.

Staffordshire police confirmed it is investigating a Facebook post which claimed that at least three ducklings were killed on Friday at a roundabout in Trentham near Stoke-on-Trent. The post claimed they were killed by the driver of a white transit van who allegedly ignored other drivers who were waiting for the ducks to cross the road.

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Ditching the hard shoulder proved too hard a sell to MPs and motorists

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Analysis: the UK government has bowed to the inevitable and shelved the expanded rollout

Pausing the rollout of smart motorways suggests the government has finally bowed to the inevitable, faced with the collective outrage of motoring groups, bereaved families, newspapers, MPs – and indeed a former minister who signed off the schemes.

Not, though, that the small print guarantees drivers have in any way seen the end of the hard shoulderless highways: ongoing major works will be completed, and even design work will go ahead for more stretches, in case the mood changes by 2025.

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The six ages of driving – or how I went from heroin alley speed junkie to terrified city motorist | Brigid Delaney

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One driving instructor told me he’d driven with murderers who were safer than me

The amusement arcades in Russell Street were the place in Melbourne to buy heroin in the 90s and early 2000s. But I went there to learn how to drive.

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What were some of the collateral effects of lockdowns? | David Spiegelhalter and Anthony Masters

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Hospital waiting lists rose, but traffic accidents fell – Covid-19’s consequences will emerge in time, but it’s not all quantifiable
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In early 2020, there were bans on most social contact, international travel stopped, workplaces and schools shut. Lockdown had arrived. These policies may have limited the spread of the virus, but what collateral harms and benefits on physical health were there?

Despite recommendations to continue to seek help, normal healthcare endured severe disruption. In England, waiting lists for hospital treatment now exceed 5m, up more than 500,000 from before the pandemic. During the first wave, nearly 90,000 joint replacement surgeries were cancelled, leaving many struggling with pain. Cancer investigations and diagnoses fell and although there is no sign yet of any excess cancer deaths, this may only become apparent in subsequent years.

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UK bans any use of mobile phones while driving

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Government updates law to ban drivers from using phone in any way, not just calling and texting

Drivers who use hand-held phones in any way behind the wheel will face £200 fines and possible bans when changes in the law take account of smartphones.

While making calls or texting on a hand-held mobile while driving is already illegal, taking photos, scrolling through a playlist or even playing games on phones has not been outlawed until now – allowing drivers to escape charges when spotted with a phone.

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Berlin reports rise in fatalities as new bike lanes fail to keep cyclists safe

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Campaigners demand more rules for lorries after initial hope pandemic would mean less traffic

A coronavirus-related drop in traffic and new protected bike lanes have failed to make Berlin’s roads safer for cyclists, as the German capital reports a four-year record in fatalities.

A woman run over by a right-turning articulated lorry in the district of Reinickendorf on Friday became Berlin’s 14th official cycling fatality of 2020 – more than twice as many as the six recorded in 2019.

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Luxembourg is first country to make all public transport free

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Country is first to implement measure nationwide in attempt to reduce congestion

Luxembourg is to become the first country to offer a free public transport system, as the government tries to reduce particularly dense car traffic.

Some cities have taken similar partial measures but the transport ministry said it was the only time such a decision had encompassed an entire country.

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Overturned crane closes both directions of the M25 in Essex

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London orbital motorway is likely to be affected for a considerable time, say police

The M25 has been shut after a serious collision involving a crane that overturned and crashed over both sides of the carriageway.

The incident happened at junction 27 with the M11 in Essex on Friday evening. It has caused huge tailbacks in both directions including more than 10 miles on the clockwise carriageway of the motorway around London.

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World-first mobile phone detection cameras rolled out in Australia

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New South Wales hopes to cut fatalities on the state’s roads by a third with devices that operate day and night in all weather

New South Wales rolled out mobile phone detection cameras on Sunday, hoping to cut the number of fatalities on its roads by a third over two years, transport authorities said.

The world-first mobile phone detection cameras, according to Transport for NSW, which manages the state’s transport services, operate day and night in all weather conditions to determine if a driver is handling a mobile phone.

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MPs call for tougher penalties on drivers using mobile phones

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Committee says ban on hands-free use should be considered amid rise in road deaths

Tougher restrictions on drivers using mobile phones, including extending the ban to hands-free devices, should be considered, MPs have said.

The transport select committee said using any type of mobile phone while driving had potentially catastrophic consequences. The MPs called for more severe penalties “commensurate with the risks”, as road deaths linked to phone use have risen steadily over the past decade.

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‘It’s dangerous out there’: safety fears drive new Berlin bike lanes

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Although Germany is internationally touted as bike-friendly, Berlin lags metropolises like Amsterdam or Copenhagen by decades. But in the city’s senate, a rethink is under way

Electric bikes, swanky racers and clanky old flea market two-wheelers roll along a cycle path near Berlin’s Hasenheide park that was recently reclaimed from a lane used by cars. The path has been coated with bright green paint and has a line of stripy metal bollards to separate it from the busy road.

“It’s now protected from cars and that is good,” says Jerome Jossin, who lives nearby and whose baby sits swinging her legs from a seat on the back of his bike. “This is safer, but it’s not typical.”

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Woman ‘poses as dead cyclist’s aunt’ to oppose new London bike lane

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Heather Cairns says woman ‘masqueraded’ as her daughter Eilidh’s aunt at council meeting

A woman posed as the aunt of a cyclist who was killed in London in order to oppose plans for a new segregated bike lane, according to the victim’s mother.

Eilidh Cairns, a television producer from Alnwick in Northumberland, died aged 30 in 2009 after being hit by a tipper truck while riding in Notting Hill in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

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Death toll on Queensland’s roads reaches 13 after horror week

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Police investigating whether deaths of mother and four children in Monday’s crash were part of a murder-suicide

Thirteen people have lost their lives in crashes on Queensland’s roads this week.

The death of a 20-year-old woman in a crash on the New England Highway near Crows Nest on Friday comes at the end of a dreadful week for the state.

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All new UK cars to have speed limiters by 2022 under EU plans

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Road safety measure part of package of reforms likely to be adopted despite Brexit

All new cars sold in the UK and Europe are to be fitted with devices to automatically stop drivers from exceeding the speed limit under sweeping changes to vehicle safety rules provisionally agreed by the EU.

Although Britain may no longer be part of the EU when the rules come into effect, the UK regulator, the Vehicle Certification Agency, has said it will mirror safety standards for vehicles in the UK.

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