DEATH and serious injuries caused by road crashes in Buckinghamshire are costing over £70milllion per year, a study into transport and health has concluded.

Research into accident statistics by councils in the area and the NHS also demonstrated that there is a higher than national average rate of casualties on the county's roads.

South Bucks had a crash casualty rate approaching twice that of the country as a whole in 2010, the latest full data showed.

And the highest proportion of those killed or seriously injured came from the novice driver category - ages 17-25.

The report said: "Road traffic collisions have significant impacts on local communities causing suffering for those affected, network disruptions and significant associated costs. "Based on the Department for Transport's Transport Analysis Guidance, the number of confirmed casualties in Buckinghamshire is estimated to cost the community over £70m per annum."

In 2010, there were 1,836 reported road casualties in Buckinghamshire, including 221 people that were killed or seriously injured.

This represents a rate of 368.6 casualties per 100,000 population, which is slightly above the national average of 354.9.

The figure for South Bucks stood at 668.41 (451 casualties), the highest rate in the county by far, with Chiltern at 368.6 (239), Aylesbury Vale at 341.2 (595), and Wycombe at 334.3 (551).

However, the study pointed out that sparsely populated rural areas of Buckinghamshire which have high numbers of through traffic on major A roads and motorways such as the M40 and M25 affects the rate.

Areas which have low resident populations but high amounts of people and traffic coming in daily, can have "artificially high" casualty rates because "the at-risk resident population is not an accurate indicator of exposure to transport".

From January 2009 to August 2012, novice drivers made up 27 per cent of the killed or injured seriously rate, with motorcyclists and business drivers second most on 22 per cent. Speeding drivers, at 18 per cent, and older drivers, 17 per cent made up the list.

Buckinghamshire County Council has achieved its target, set in 2000, of a 40 per cent reduction in crash deaths and injuries by 2010.

The authority has carried out a range of driver safety and training schemes to try to reduce the casualties in the past decade.

 

Other Transport report statistics:

- Car use on the journey to school fell from 45 per cent in 2002 to around 30 per cent in 2010.

-Bikeability training was delivered to 3,933 children in Buckinghamshire in 2011/12, equipping children with safety skills.

-17,835 cycling trips were recorded in the county during 2011.

- Transport for Buckinghamshire spends £7.3m on public transport in the county, £3.8m of which is spent on the Concessionary Travel Scheme for older and disabled residents.

- 10.8 million passenger trips were made on bus services in Buckinghamshire in 2011/12, 5.9 million of which were on subsidised routes.