Star comment: Safer road use down to all of us
While Shropshire has much to be proud of, it is a county that is far from perfect. Though it is rich in natural resources and has considerable skills and talents, its infrastructure lags behind that in other regions.
Improvements are still required to Shropshire's digital network so that all people and businesses are on a level playing field. It is quite wrong that those who choose to live in the countryside should lag behind those who live in towns when they connect to the internet or try to make a mobile phone call.
And Shropshire's roads also leave much to be desired. They are the scene of too many serious and fatal accidents. The human cost of routes that ought to be maintained to a higher standard is much too high.
While engineers, council planners and the government are unable to rid our roads of all accidents, more can be done to make them safer. Such work requires investment, of course, and in an era when councils have to prune social care budgets, axe culture and sport and trim back community services, the burden should not fall on them.
The government has a moral responsibilty to keep us safe and it is for the Department for Transport and highways authorities to maintain and improve the transport network.
In Shropshire, the A49 stands out as one of the county's most dangerous roads with repeated fatal and serious injury accidents taking place. A crash map shows that the A5 is another road that is similarly dangerous while the A458 and B4380 are other notable inclusions. In Mid Wales, the A483 has been the scene of too many incidents.
Work to reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries should not be confined to engineering improvements. Attention should also be paid to traffic calming, to better signage and to improved awareness among motorists.
And those who use such roads frequently can also participate in changing the culture by observing speed limits and not driving too quickly.
Making our roads safer is a collective endeavour. The buck does not stop with the Government. And yet it is vital that the Government does not abrogate its responsibility. More investment is urgently required and the county should not be treated as a poor relation of nearby metropolitan areas. Improving roads saves lives.
