Information on Loughborough

Speed limit review could save lives

Posted on 30/09/2009

Leicestershire Councty Council Cabinet Office

29 September 2009

Speed limit review could save lives

A review of speed limits in Leicestershire, to reduce accidents and save lives, will be considered by the County Council’s Cabinet.

Up to 416 miles (671 kilometres) of A and B roads will be reviewed by the end of 2011, if the Cabinet approves the proposal on October 6.

In choosing the right speed limit, the Council has to take note of what most drivers think is a sensible speed to travel. Government guidance used to focus on the speed that was driven by 85% of drivers but latest advice suggest that this sets limits too high and the Council will be following new guidance to use the mean, or average, speed.

Lesley Pendleton, Cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “We want to reduce the number of road accidents, injuries and deaths caused by speeding and this review should help us to achieve that.”

In 2008, there were 705 accidents on the county's A and B class roads, excluding trunk roads - 13% were thought to be speed related. Of the 81 accidents where someone was killed or seriously injured, 20% were speed related.

If approved, the speed limit review will initially cover 262 miles of A roads, 149 miles of B roads and 4.3 miles of the busiest C roads, before covering other C class and unclassified roads. Changes will be introduced by amending traffic regulation orders.

The Cabinet meets at 2.30pm on October 6.