Revealed: Worst Area in Leeds for Road Casualties
Parts of Leeds have ranked in the top 10 per cent of the UK for the number of casualties on our roads.
New research from Road Safety Charity PACTs show East Leeds has 26 percent more crashes than the national average.
Between 2010-2013 there were a total of 1,423 road casualties in the area, which includes Harehills, Seacroft, Cross Gates and Gipton. Of those, 12 were fatal.
When it comes to crashes involving pedestrians, the area saw a casualty rate 52 per cent higher than the national average.
Drivers there told Radio Aire what bad habits they often see:
*“I’ve seen quite a few bumps, and people pulling out of junctions when they’re not supposed to. I see quite a lot of selfish driving too, people cutting each other up.”
“It’s a narrow road in Harehills, there’s parking on both sides and the road’s not in the best nick*.”
*Speeding, going straight at a roundabout and you think they’re going to crash into you…even when we have the ‘baby on board’ sign in the car, they still drive so close to you.”
“When there’s a baby in the car it can be scary because people just fly out and don’t look. It is the larger roundabouts that are the problem, particularly near Seacroft.*”
“Harehills is dangerous, I learnt to drive round Harehills. Lots of people just walk straight out in front of cars, not paying any attention.”*
Leeds North West was the only constituency in the city which had a casualty rate LOWER than the national average.
Nationally, the research showed rural areas were worse than cities for the number of crashes. Great Grimsby had the highest casualty rate in the country.
Other accident black spots included Preston, Peterborough, Boston and Skegness.
This is the first time MPs will have specific road casualty information based on their constituency boundaries, and PACTs hopes it will provide a catalyst for action at a local level.
In 2013, the most recent year when full public data is available for analysis, 183,670 people were reported injured on British roads, including 23,370 killed or seriously injured.