A third of Gwynedd road deaths are bikers - North Wales News - News - Daily Post North Wales

ALMOST a third of people killed on a county’s road are bikers.

Of the 43 people killed on Gwynedd’s roads between 2004-2008, 12 were riding a motorbike.

That’s 28% of the road death total despite the fact bikers make up less than 5% of the driving population.

Bikers also accounted for more than a third of those seriously injured during the same period.

In a series of special reports the Daily Post is revealing where road fatalities and accidents take place across the North Wales’ six counties.

The Welsh Assembly Government and Department for Transport statistics cover a four-year period between 2004-08 and reveal in detail where road users are being killed or seriously injured.

The Gwynedd figures show that it has comfortably the highest number of bike fatalities in North Wales.

In 2009 exactly a quarter of those killed or seriously injured on the county’s roads were on motorbikes.

Half of the bike deaths have centred on two notorious roads in the south of the county near Barmouth and Dolgellau, the A496 and the A494.

A stretch of the A496 was dubbed one of the most dangerous roads in Wales in a report by the Road Safety Foundation, released last year, following a string of accidents and fatalities – they included the death of Harlech student Steven Evans in 2007.

Only last week an inquest was held into the death of biker Nathan Charles Gandalf Fox, 35, who was killed at an blackspot bend in August 2010.

At the inquest Supt Gary Ashton revealed that despite the region recording a record low for road deaths, 40% of the 20 killed in 2010 were motorcyclists.

Barmouth councillor Trevor Roberts called for speed limits on both these roads to be lowered and blamed the high death rate on Gwynedd’s popularity in the biking fraternity.

“I know the council has put in anti-skid surfaces on some of the dangerous bends in roads around Barmouth and Dolgellau but these accidents keep happening.

“People don’t like speed limits, I know that, but I think it is time to introduce a 40mph limit along stretches of the A496 and the A494, which are accident blackspots. This might act as a deterrent to at least some.”

He then called on bikers to heed the message contained in the statistics. “I know the motorcyclists love it over here and we welcome them as long as they drive responsibly on our roads.

“I would like to see one of the biker monthly magazines put in a warning for their readers to be careful.

“A crash affects not just the biker but the whole economy. If the road between Barmouth and Dolgellau is closed everyone else faces a 40 mile detour and its local businesses that suffer. By all means come here but drive safely.”

North West Wales coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones said that cutting the fatalities further on Gwynedd’s roads would be a difficult task.

“Even when money has been spent on improving the roads (in Gwynedd) these accidents keep happening.”

A Gwynedd Council spokesman said its road safety officers worked in partnership with the emergency services to deliver a varied programme of education, training and publicity initiatives aimed at improving road user behaviour.

“Gwynedd’s Road Safety Partnership is actively involved in promoting a number of road safety initiatives and campaigns, with particular emphasis on young driver initiatives and developing Bikesafe courses for motorcyclists.

“The sad fact is both these categories of road users feature too often in casualty statistics. Indeed, drivers between the ages of 17 and 19 are six times more likely to have a drink-drive crash than drivers aged 30 to 34, and one in five new drivers will be involved in a collision within the first 12 months of passing their driving test.

“Statistics relating to motorcycle crashes are also a cause of concern. On average 600 motorcyclists are killed on UK roads every year. Young motorcyclists are more likely to be involved in a collision than any other category of road user. It is a staggering fact that a motorcyclist in Wales is 45 times more likely to be killed on the road than someone travelling in a car.”

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