Road safety campaigner questions switch-off savings

“WHY does someone always have to die for people to see the obvious?”

The words of road safety campaigner Paul Kerr who is calling on Warwickshire County Council to make urgent improvements.

His plea follows the inquest of Warwick University student Archie Wellbelove, who was killed in Leamington in December 2012 just six days after the council had turned off four in five of the county’s streetlights overnight in a bid to save £500,000 annually - a move which coroner Dr Richard Brittain ruled contributed to the 18-year-old’s death.

But far from saving money, Mr Kerr believes investigating Archie’s death has in fact cost the council.

He told The Observer: “The average cost of each fatality is around £1.78 million so the council’s claim to have saved £500,000 is wrong.

“Aside from the fact that you can’t put a price on a young person’s life, there are emotional costs for family and friends.

“In Archie’s case, his death could potentially have been avoided had the council not just looked at it from a cost saving perspective.”

In 1992, Mr Kerr’s 17-year-old son John Paul was killed when the car he was travelling in crashed into a tree near Coventry.

Since then, the 70-year-old has fought tirelessly to improve road safety and was influential in launching a ground-breaking national campaign last year.

But he believes now is the time for both local and central government to do more to help educate youngsters and avoid such tragedies.

He added: “In 2012, there were 1,754 fatalities on the roads, which equates to more than £3 billion being spent on investigating deaths.

“If just a fraction of that was used to implement a basic road safety initiative, it could really make a difference. But currently, central government devolve responsibility to local authorities who don’t see it as a priority.

“As a parent who has suffered a loss myself, that pain never goes away and if a campaign helps save one life it will be worth it.”

A county council spokesman said the authority had considered the move to part-night streetlighting carefully.

He told The Observer: “We have closely examined all aspects of safety both before and during the move to part-night lighting and there has been no increase in the rates of accidents on roads where lights have been switched off.

“We will continue to work closely with all agencies and monitor the data on road accidents as well as community safety where part-night lighting is in operation.

“We currently have a road safety team that goes to all schools and we work with emergency services to put out safety messages.

“We will also look at what has been learned at the inquest to see what this tragic case can tell us.”

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