Roads are busier but they are safer, says Home Affairs

The committee was responding to a freedom of information request about how safe the roads are for pedestrians and cyclists, with concerns more vehicles might have led to more accidents and injuries.

But the figures show that people are actually safer.

In 1969, there were 80 people seriously injured, and seven fatalities, which included two pedestrians.

But in 2022, there were 10 people seriously injured, and one fatality – a driver.

‘There are of course many reasons for the improvements in road safety, including updated drink drive laws, seat belts, motor vehicle construction and design, reduced speed limits and better highway infrastructure, as well as general road user behaviour and awareness campaigns,’ the spokesman said.

The FOI gave details of incidents motor vehicle incidents involving cyclists and pedestrians over the last three years, as well as so far in 2023.

These showed there were 38 in 2020, 33 in 2021 and 38 in 2022. So far this year there have been 12.

That means overall there have been 121 incidents, of which 56 involved pedestrians and 65 involved cyclists.

This shows numbers are relatively stable. Due to the small numbers, scaling up the numbers to compare with the UK would not give an accurate picture.

Looking at UK figures for pedestrians injured in traffic incidents, they show a sharp drop over the last 20 years.

There were 671 fatalities, 10,318 severe injuries and 23,892 slight injuries in 2004. This compares with 361 fatalities, 5,032 severe injuries and 11,261 slight injuries in 2021.

Back in Guernsey, civil servants are looking at options to make Guernsey’s roads safer.

‘Road safety is important to the Committee for Home Affairs and it engages with the Committee for the Environment & Infrastructure on transport-related matters that are of mutual interest,’ the Home Affairs spokesman said.

‘Ways in which road safety can be improved are always under review, such as proposed drink/drug driving law amendments and a potential new offence of causing death by careless driving, on which the committee is preparing a policy letter for consideration by the States before the end of this political term.’

At the end of last year, there were more than 88,000 vehicles registered in Guernsey.

Of these, about 65,400 are in circulation. Guernsey population is just over 64,000 people.