Calls for harder hitting campaigns to tackle danger driving

Firefighters are often called to the most serious road traffic collisions (RTCs) to help remove people from vehicles by means such as cutting the roof off a car.

At a recent meeting of West Yorkshire Fire Authority’s Community Safety Committee, members were given an update on the number of crashes the service was called to in the past 12 months.

One councillor pointed out that Bradford seems to have a disproportionately high number of serious crashes.

The report said across West Yorkshire the service attended 576 RTCs between April 2023 and March 2024, with crashes accounting for two per cent of all the emergencies they attend.

These RTCs resulted in 444 injuries and 15 fatalities.

Referring to instances in Bradford, the report said: “Bradford fire crews have attended 144 RTCs in this reporting period, 29 more than the three-year average.

“There have been 100 injuries and four fatalities.

“40 of these incidents have required firefighters to employ full extrication techniques to rescue the casualties.”

Scott Donegan, area manager for prevention and response at the fire service, said one of the measures to try and reduce crashes in West Yorkshire was the 'Fast, Furious and Fatal' campaign, where firefighters work with young people aged 15 and up to teach them the consequences of dangerous and careless driving.

Sessions to warn young people about the dangers of riding e-scooters and e-bikes was also being rolled out.

A West Yorkshire fire engine (Image: T&A)

He pointed out that West Yorkshire has 100 miles of motorway and 6,000 miles of local roads.

Bradford Councillor Mike Pollard (Cons, Baildon) said a “heat map” of traffic incidents given to members showed Bradford as a particular hot spot.

He said while Leeds also showed a high number of accidents, it was a city with a bigger population than Bradford.

Cllr Pollard added: “Bradford looks disturbingly red – especially in the three central Bradford constituencies. I know Operation Steerside continues to do good work, but is there anything we can do about this other than youth interventions?”

Mr Donegan said: “It is linked to population size, but it is also linked to deprivation.

“We do support Steerside and other campaigns – we had some success with a Nitrous Oxide campaign which led to it being classed as a controlled substance.

“A lot of the work we do is going into schools, talking to 16- and 17-year-olds who are about to learn to drive about road safety and the consequences of dangerous driving.”

He told members that although the Bradford RTC figures were high, this was only relative to West Yorkshire. He said areas such as Manchester had higher levels of crashes.

Wakefield Councillor Charlie Keith (Lab) suggested future awareness campaigns could be more hard-hitting to counter the carefree attitude of many young drivers.

He said: “We could have something like ‘this girl thought it would be a laugh to go out driving with her friend. Her friend drove like a nutter and now she’s dead - a police officer is knocking on her mum’s door to tell her that her daughter’s dead'.

“Sometimes it is about being a bit more brutal.”

He also raised concerns that the high cost of driving meant many young people were forced to buy older, less safe cars. He said: “Some people are running cars that are 10 plus years old.

"A lot of these older cars are falling into the hands of younger drivers who can’t afford anything else. These cars are not as well maintained, so we could maybe do more work with the places giving these cars their MOTs.

“I don’t want to make driving a rich man’s sport, but if someone takes out a car that is 15 years old and doesn’t drive it properly it puts us all at risk.”

Mr Donegan told members that that changes to legislation mean dashcam footage from fire engines can now be used as evidence by police when prosecuting danger drivers.

Mr Donegan said: “This can include cars overtaking a fire appliance with its blue lights on or drivers pulling out in front of us.”