Mainland motorists, ‘irresponsible young drivers’ and ‘incapable old drivers’ are not the main cause of crashes on Isle of Wight roads, a senior police chief has said.
It follows 2021 data, published by the Isle of Wight’s Community Safety Partnership (CSP), which showed there were 242 road accidents involving injury on the Island.
Speaking at the Isle of Wight Council’s corporate scrutiny committee on Tuesday, Cllr Chris Quirk said the impression on the Island is that there is a twin peak issue with “young drivers being irresponsible and old drivers not being capable”.
He also questioned whether it was possible to know if it was Islanders or holidaymakers who caused the accidents.
Cllr Quirk hoped through knowing who caused the accidents, actions could be targeted to those groups to try to reduce incidents.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary’s Superintendent Robert Mitchell said there was nothing to indicate an issue with mainland drivers coming across, as crashes were “mainly resident drivers”.
He also said there was no differential between young and old drivers, although there may be more of an influence of drug driving on the younger population.
Supt. Mitchell said there is a challenge with the layout of roads on the Island and the rural nature, and a “certain complacency with some residents on how safe it is to speed.”
Analysis of the accident data suggested more incidents occurred between April and September than in other months and between Wednesday to Saturday than other days.
Peaks of crashes were in mid-morning (11am to 1pm) and in the evening rush hour (4pm to 6pm).
The majority of crashes, the CSP said, occurred on built-up roads with a speed limit of 21 to 30mph and not usually at junctions.
A concern for the CSP was the relatively high rates of admission to hospital for motorcyclists aged up to 24, which was above the national average.
To crack down on road safety, which is a priority for the CSP, the Roads Policing Unit has recently been re-established with officers undertaking speed enforcement activity.
Supt. Mitchell said in a recent campaign, Operation Mile, more than 120 offences had been picked up, and drivers were prosecuted either through a ticker or in court, with the vast majority for impaired driving through drugs or alcohol.
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