Liberal Democrat Candidate Sam North Unveils Plans to Make Hertfordshire’s Roads Safer

Under plans released by Liberal Democrat Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate, Sam North, roads are to be made safer.

"I have unveiled plans today for a coherent roads policing strategy that sets out the basis for how our roads can be made safer. After it was revealed that only 3% of Hertfordshire Police's budget is spent on policing our roads, it is no wonder that on average 78% of people see a traffic offence on a daily or weekly basis.

I have today announced that I will be fully adopting the Action Vision Zero plan that is set out in conjunction with British Cycling, Cycling UK, Living Streets, Road Danger Reduction Forum, Sustrans, RoadPeace and 20s Plenty to ensure safety on our roads.

This forms a commitment to:

• Make road danger reduction a priority,
• Improve the post-crash response and
• Tackle speeding amongst other things."

Most recent figures show that there are over 2,800 people being injured every year with someone dying or suffering life changing injuries every single day on Hertfordshire's roads.

"Hertfordshire is falling severely behind when it comes to keeping our roads safe. The number of people Killed and Seriously Injured (KSI) has gone up almost 14% since 2010-2014, this is simply not good enough. It is important that proper investment is put into enforcing safety on our roads to reverse this trend

Today I have committed to double the current Roads Policing budget to £10 million. This will provide for a far more proactive approach to roads policing and enable the force to deal with the causes of these frightning statistics on our roads.

Some of the initiatives I will implement include:

• Use of Dash Cam evidence with a streamlined submission facility - making it easier for people with dash cam evidence to submit it evidentially,
• Alcohol and Drug testing kits in every frontline police vehicle,
• introduction and enforcement of 20mph speed limits,
• more investigative resource for collision investigations,
• speed guns in every marked police vehicle and a
• greater focus on safety of motorcyclists, pedestrians and cyclists."