Cumbria Road Safety Partnership (CRSP) has announced an aim to reduce serious injury and deaths on the county’s roads by targeting the accident hotspots across the county, formally adopting Vision Zero 2040.

CRSP sees partners from Cumbria Constabulary, Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service, Cumberland Council and others come together to identify practical solutions to make the county’s roads safer and reduce Kills and Serious Injuries (KSIs).

In 2022, Cumbria Police attended 292 KSI collisions on the road network in which 27 of those were fatal collisions.

Deputy Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (DPFCC), Mike Johnson, said: “Anti-social driving and dangerous driving is constantly highlighted as a public priority to the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.

“Therefore, I am really pleased to see agencies coming together to look at the high-risk roads and identify the changes that can be made to reduce deaths and serious accidents on the roads.

“We can work together to make Cumbria’s roads safer for everyone. Whether they are a pedestrian or a driver, everyone should be able to get home safely.”

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Work is already being done to reduce the likelihood of KSIs on these roads. A safety camera van was placed on the A66 at Crackenthorpe between April 20  and April 30.

During this period 106 drivers were caught speeding and one driver was caught driving under the influence of alcohol.

Vision Zero is a multi-national traffic safety initiative which was founded in the late 1990’s based on the philosophy that no one should be killed or seriously injured within the road transport network.

Sergeant Jack Stabler said: “Every death on the roads is a tragedy which is why Cumbria Constabulary is committed to embracing the Vision Zero goal and continuing to work to drive down the number of fatal and serious injury collisions on our roads.

“The road safety partnership will be a key to the success of this goal. It gets key agencies which can impact road safety in our county round the same table and working collaboratively for the same goal – to make our roads safer for all.”