Vehicle activated signs 'improving Surrey road safety'

Date: 4/5/2011

Signs on Surrey roadsides that display the speed limit and warn drivers to slow down if they are exceeding it as they pass are helping to improve safety levels.

As a result, the region's county council has pledged to put more funding towards maintaining the 500 installations in order to ensure they keep doing their job.

Together, the local authority and Surrey police's Drive SMART campaign has raised £30,000 for the cause, after analysis revealed that there has been a 30 per cent reduction in crashes occurring at sites where the signs are in place.

In total, the number of people killed on roads in Surrey has dropped from 41 in 2009 to 32 last year, while over the same period the number of individuals who were seriously injured declined from 530 to 488.

Kay Hammond, Surrey County Council's Cabinet Member for Community Safety, says: "These signs are an important part of our road safety work, which is why we need them to be in good working order. This money will be used to fix or replace any that have broken. "

The local authority last month revealed it has submitted a funding bid to the Department for Transport called Travel Smart, which aims to make the county one of the most pedestrian, bicycle and bus-friendly in the UK.

Posted by Sarah Bailey