BROMLEY LAUNCHES ONLINE GUIDANCE OVER PARKING APPEALS / 18,000 PEDESTRIANS INJURED IN ACCIDENTS NATIONWIDE IN ONE YEAR
A new online interactive guidance facility to help motorists with their parking appeals has now gone live in Bromley.
Bromley and Bexley are the first councils in the UK to provide this new online system developed by Barbour Logic and beta-tested in partnership with the shared Bromley and Bexley parking service.
For the first time ever, motorists appealing against a penalty charge notice (PCN) will know in advance the likely outcome of their appeal with a full explanation.
“This is the most significant change yet in the way councils deal with PCN appeals and it demonstrates how the parking service for Bromley/Bexley is open and transparent” said a council spokesperson.
“The latest improvement being access to the new online guidance, which allows the motorist to interact and find out the likely outcome of an appeal and where appropriate, the type of evidence required to consider it further.”
Bromley’s executive councillor for environment Cllr Colin Smith said: “Bromley council have always encouraged ticketed motorists who feel hard done by to appeal and we will of course continue to always abide by the arbitrator’s decision.
“This innovative new development is designed and intended to assist those contemplating doing so, arrive at their decision in a more fully informed manner in future.
“We are hopeful that in addition to serving motorists with a genuine reason to appeal, it will also help others before they decide to enter what can sometimes be a very stressful process on a purely speculative basis”.
Bromley and Bexley councils receive approximately 23,000 and 12,000 appeals per annum, respectively. Motorists have been able to appeal online against penalties issued in these boroughs for a number of years.
Bromley and Bexley merged their parking service sections to form a shared service on 1 April 2013.
Barbour Logic are the creators of Response Master, a highly specialised, award-winning system used by councils and the public to answer queries about PCNs. (Source: Bromley council press release)
18,000 PEDESTRIANS INJURED IN ACCIDENTS IN ONE YEAR
The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) has revealed that nearly 18,000 pedestrians were injured in an accident involving a vehicle in the last full year with analysis available.
The charity is calling for an even greater focus on pedestrian protection to make cars safer and raise awareness of the risks.
The figures come from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request made by the IAM, Britain’s biggest independent road safety charity, asking for details of the most common pairs of contributory factors reported together by the police attending the scene of an accident in 2013.
Police can record up to six contributory factors from a list of 77 for each incident to explain why they think a crash took place but the top two give the most obvious reasons for the incident. The statistics come from an analysis of the most recent full year data covering the whole of 2013.
Last month the IAM reported that ‘failure to look properly’ and ‘failure to judge other person’s path or speed’ was the biggest pairing of factors when it came to vehicles in accidents. And now the pairings of factors listed by police for all pedestrian casualties in accidents can be revealed.
‘Pedestrian failed to look properly’ with ‘pedestrian careless, reckless or in a hurry’ were named as factors in 4,100 casualty accidents, or 23 per cent of the overall total putting them clearly at Number 1.
The remainder of the factor combinations listed are as follows:
2. ‘Pedestrian crossing road masked by stationary or parked vehicle’ with ‘pedestrian failed to look properly’ – 1,961 casualties (11pc)
3. ‘Pedestrian failed to judge vehicle’s path or speed’ with ‘pedestrian careless, reckless or in a hurry – 1,204 casualties (7pc)
4. ‘Pedestrian crossing road masked by stationary or parked vehicle’ with ‘pedestrian careless, reckless or in a hurry’ – 1,013 casualties (6pc)
The IAM manifesto makes a number of suggestions on how to protect pedestrians, including making road safety education part of the national curriculum, making pedestrian safety a bigger factor in vehicle design and a long-term engineering programme to deliver safer roads in the UK.
IAM chief executive officer Sarah Sillars says: “Pedestrian fatalities are rising faster than any other group right now so it is vital that drivers are more sympathetic and aware of pedestrians when they make their journeys.
“There is no need to blame any party when it comes to how to reduce the numbers of people killed and injured on our roads – all road users need to look out for each other and ensure we minimise the impact of our own and others unpredictable behaviour.” (Source: IAM press release)