A package of initiatives aimed at eliminating deaths and serious injuries on Oxfordshire’s roads by 2050 has been approved.

Each year on Oxfordshire’s roads there are approximately 30 deaths, 245 serious injuries and nearly 1,250 slight injuries reported.

Alongside this, there are an estimated 30,000 collisions of all types and approximately 1,250 reported injury collisions.

Oxfordshire County Council’s cabinet approved on Tuesday the strategy and action plan entitled ‘Oxfordshire – Safe Roads through Vision Zero to 2030’.

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The document builds on the council’s adoption of Vision Zero in 2022, a concept that originated in Sweden in the 1990s as a road safety approach.

The ambition is to reduce deaths and serious injuries on Oxfordshire’s roads to zero by 2050, with targets of a 25 per cent reduction by 2026 and 50 per cent by 2030.

It also follows a public consultation on the proposed strategy, which received more than 1,300 responses.

Oxford Mail: The Plain has already been targeted by the council.The Plain has already been targeted by the council.

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Paul Fermer, Oxfordshire County Council’s director of highways and operations, said: “The case for Vision Zero is clear. Between 2017 and 2021, a total of 128 people were killed on Oxfordshire roads, and a further 1,130 were seriously injured.

“This has a devastating impact on individuals and families, and on our communities in general.

“Vision Zero starts with a simple premise, that no human being should be killed or seriously injured as the result of a road collision, whatever mode of transport they are using.

“Although there has been a long-term downward trend in reported road collisions and injuries in Oxfordshire, recent figures show they are now on the increase.

“We need to take a zero tolerance attitude to having anyone else killed or seriously injured on our roads.”

Oxford Mail: Vision Zero aims to significantly reduce road deaths in the county.Vision Zero aims to significantly reduce road deaths in the county. (Image: Newsquest)

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Vision Zero was adopted in 2022 by the council, prompted by the deaths of two female cyclists in Oxford in the space of a few weeks earlier that very year.

Work has already been carried out at The Plain roundabout in the city aimed at making it safer for vulnerable road users, including cyclists.

The programme now has a £4 million capital budget for measures delivered by 2026, plus £250,000 of revenue funding.

It is rooted in the belief that every death reflects a human failure in the system and its safe system approach encompasses five aspects.

These are safe roads and roadsides, safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe road users and the post-collision response.

The council will look at near-miss data to understand the flow of traffic at junctions and review the causes of slight incidents before they become serious or fatal collisions.

This data will be used for identifying collision hot spots, prioritising maintenance at these sites and improving road safety infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists.