Bradford Metropolitan District Council
Local Authority
Action Planned
Bradford Metropolitan District Council has programmed a series of road safety improvements for Victoria Road during the 2014/15 financial year. These plans include installing speed cushions for vehicle speed reduction and new uncontrolled crossing points to encourage safer pedestrian crossings, with construction planned for summer 2014. (AI summary)
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Dear Mrs Sumeray RE: Karl Olof Nilsson, Deceased Report to Prevent Further Deaths Paragraph 7, Schedule 5 of the Coroners and Justice Act 200.9 and Regulations 28 and 29 of the Coroners (investigations) Regulations 2013 Thank you for your letter and attached report regarding the above matter. May I first apologise for the delay in responding as I have had a long period of illness and I am just getting back to normal duties now. Just to set the scene, I would first like to bring to your attention my background and involvement with this matter: I am Principal Engineer for the 6 Shipley Wards in Bradford, working for the Planning, Transportation and Highways Department. I have been in this role since 2006. I am lead officer on traffic matters within the council (policy and delivery) and I have a long standing involvement in Road Safety delivery. I also have various strategic and national roles: (cid:127) Chair of the West Yorkshire Casualty Reduction Partnership (Management of all the safety cameras in 10/06/2014
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West Yorkshire); (cid:127) Chair of the West Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership (5 West Yorkshire Authorities come together to discuss Road Safety); (cid:127) Chair of Core Cities (All the Metropolitan cities in the UK come together to discuss Road Safety matters and feed back to the Department for Transport, who also attend); (cid:127) Member of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS); (cid:127) Technical lead for the development of the Safer Roads element of the Local Transport Plan. I am also a member of the Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) in Bradford and I have given evidence at the Transport Select Committee for the Strategic Framework for Road Safety document at Parliament. I have been aware of the junction and it's issues since 2008. During that time we have attended many meetings and carried out several investigations of the junction. The junction of Saltaire Road/Victoria Road is at the heart of Saltaire Village, this section also has World Heritage Status and it's a conservation area. This meant that any proposed changes to Saltaire would be passed through the conservation team and if deemed important enough, English Heritage. I concur with your assessment of the junction under Item 5, Coroner's concerns with the exception of 5.6. The trees (trunks and canopies) assisted with the avenue effect by masking the building lines at the junction. Therefore the optical illusion effect was enhanced by this. This was qualified by attending police officers at the time of the incident. Under my duties as Principal Engineer, I arranged for five trees to be removed at each corner of the junction. This immediately opened up the building lines and improved the visibility of the junction. A public realm scheme for Victoria Road has recently been awarded funding. This will involve the restoration of Victoria Road back to it's historical beginnings. One of the proposals is to remove all the trees for both sides of Victoria Road as the trees were a later addition to Victoria Road and did not feature in the original plan for the street. A consultation is currently taking place on this. As part of the public realm/safety improvements, a junction improvement scheme is about to be constructed (please find attached plan). The design incorporates stronger signing and lining and a clear, on-road demarcation of the junction from both approaches to Saltaire Road. An addition of detection loops to Victoria Road will assist with right turning vehicles into Saltaire Road. A puffin crossing 10 yards away from the junction will be triggered (l.e. a red light for the main flow of traffic on Saltaire Road) if two or more cars queue on Victoria Road. The situation will be closely monitored by my office post construction. If there is any further detail you require, please let me know at your own convenience.
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West Yorkshire); (cid:127) Chair of the West Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership (5 West Yorkshire Authorities come together to discuss Road Safety); (cid:127) Chair of Core Cities (All the Metropolitan cities in the UK come together to discuss Road Safety matters and feed back to the Department for Transport, who also attend); (cid:127) Member of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS); (cid:127) Technical lead for the development of the Safer Roads element of the Local Transport Plan. I am also a member of the Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) in Bradford and I have given evidence at the Transport Select Committee for the Strategic Framework for Road Safety document at Parliament. I have been aware of the junction and it's issues since 2008. During that time we have attended many meetings and carried out several investigations of the junction. The junction of Saltaire Road/Victoria Road is at the heart of Saltaire Village, this section also has World Heritage Status and it's a conservation area. This meant that any proposed changes to Saltaire would be passed through the conservation team and if deemed important enough, English Heritage. I concur with your assessment of the junction under Item 5, Coroner's concerns with the exception of 5.6. The trees (trunks and canopies) assisted with the avenue effect by masking the building lines at the junction. Therefore the optical illusion effect was enhanced by this. This was qualified by attending police officers at the time of the incident. Under my duties as Principal Engineer, I arranged for five trees to be removed at each corner of the junction. This immediately opened up the building lines and improved the visibility of the junction. A public realm scheme for Victoria Road has recently been awarded funding. This will involve the restoration of Victoria Road back to it's historical beginnings. One of the proposals is to remove all the trees for both sides of Victoria Road as the trees were a later addition to Victoria Road and did not feature in the original plan for the street. A consultation is currently taking place on this. As part of the public realm/safety improvements, a junction improvement scheme is about to be constructed (please find attached plan). The design incorporates stronger signing and lining and a clear, on-road demarcation of the junction from both approaches to Saltaire Road. An addition of detection loops to Victoria Road will assist with right turning vehicles into Saltaire Road. A puffin crossing 10 yards away from the junction will be triggered (l.e. a red light for the main flow of traffic on Saltaire Road) if two or more cars queue on Victoria Road. The situation will be closely monitored by my office post construction. If there is any further detail you require, please let me know at your own convenience.