Warwickshire County Council’s Accident Reduction Unit, is leading the way in reducing the number of causalities at accident "blackspots" throughout the County.

Local Safety Schemes are targeted at sites where accidents involving personal injury can be reduced by engineering measures. This is one of the measures the County Council uses to reduce the number of causalities from road traffic accidents to bring it in line with the national target which requires a 33% fall in injury accidents by the year 2000.

In 1997/98, £940,000 was spent on Local Safety Schemes throughout the County, at a time when other Councils had their allocation from central Government cut. This is a clear endorsement of the success such schemes are having in the County.

Jonathan Simkins Team Leader, Safety Engineers said;

"The statistics we have show that these Local Safety Schemes pay for themselves 6 times over in the 12 months after completion."

He added; "The morning of accidents also shows that over the last 3 years there has been a total reduction of 747 causalities at the sites treated with schemes. This amounts to a saving of £22,596,750 (747x£30,250 per casualty)."