Campaign cuts Surrey road deaths

The number of people killed on Surrey’s roads has fallen this year, new figures show.

Statistics show that road deaths fell from 22 in the first eight months of 2010 to 13 in the same period this year.

This follows figures for the whole of 2010 showing that the number of road deaths in the county fell from 41 in 2009 to 32.

The latest statistics come as Surrey County Council and Surrey Police’s Drive SMART campaign reaches the two-year milestone.

Drive SMART was launched in September 2009 after county residents rated anti-social driving as a major concern.

Kay Hammond, Surrey County Council’s Cabinet Member for Community Safety, said: “Drive SMART is all about making the county’s roads safer and improving the quality of people’s lives.

“Over the past two years, county council road safety experts and police officers have worked hard to persuade people to drive more considerately and while many factors affect road deaths, we can be sure that Drive SMART has played a role in helping save people’s lives in Surrey.”

Superintendent Sharon Bush, of Surrey Police, said: “Driver behaviour remains one of the biggest public concerns in Surrey with anti-social driving consistently being put forward as a neighbourhood policing priority at our regular police panel meetings.

“The Drive SMART campaign was launched two years ago with an emphasis on changing bad driving habits in the long term, not just handing out tickets and fines. The statistics speak for themselves but we are not complacent and will continue to work with Surrey County Council to educate motorists on the potential effects of their anti-social driving.”