Coroner Caroline Sumeray has grilled the Police over a spike in the number of deaths on the Island’s roads in recent years, with admissions made that 2 dedicated Roads Policing officers are ‘not sufficient’ and that the Roads Policing team have ‘never been so busy’.
It was during a recent inquest into the death of Mr David Cairns, a 77-year-old man who walked out in front of a car in November 2021, that His Majesty’s Coroner for the Isle of Wight took the opportunity to ask a series of questions of Sergeant Neil Corby, who heads up the Island’s Armed Response and Roads Policing team.
Coroner Sumeray asked Sgt Corby, in open court and under oath, what the average number of road deaths is in a year. Sgt Corby explained that on average it is 2-3, but can vary from 0-1, or even 3-4.
Mrs Sumeray then asked how many deaths there had been over the past 18 to 24 months, with Sgt Corby responding that in the 12 months since Mr Cairns’ incident in November 2021, there had been 11 deaths on the Island’s roads. He admitted it was a ‘massive increase’ and recognised that a number of the fatalities involved motorcyclists and young people.
When asked how many other road traffic incidents are occurring that do not lead to a death, Sgt Corby said “in the hundreds per year”.
Analysis of articles published by Island Echo shows that there have been at least 14 deaths on the roads since November 2021 (less than 2 years), of which only 2 are suspected to have been medical episodes at the wheel.
Sgt Corby detailed to the Coroner that in 2016 the Island had a dedicated Roads Policing Unit, based out of Shanklin, which boasted 8 constables and 1 sergent. However, the decision was taken to disband the team, as exclusively reported by Island Echo in February 2015.
In recent years the Island’s Armed Response officers have taken up a dual responsibility of both Armed Response and Roads Policing, but it was made clear in last week’s inquest that Armed Response is the team’s primary concern.
It was in October last year that 2 dedicated Roads Policing officers were introduced – PCs Andy Ball and Michael Alchin. However, the Coroner has been told that despite the good work they are doing, 2 officers is simply ‘not sufficient’.
During last week’s inquest, the Coroner also asked Sgt Corby how long the Police’s investigation into Mr Cairns’ death had taken, in response to concerns raised by the family of Mr Cairns over the delay in concluding the inquest. The family heard that the investigation had taken 15 to 16 months.
Addressing the family’s frustration with the delay, Coroner Sumeray said:
“This is one example of all sorts of investigations that feed into inquests. It takes time before I get reports from all agencies. He has a really small team, we have a small team.
“Not 1 day of the delay was down to me”.
In July this year, Island Echo reported that the Isle of Wight is now 1 of the worst places in the country for inquest delays with grieving families having to wait 63 weeks, on average.
It’s not police fault that accidents are taking place, it’s drivers, pedestrians and most of all the state of and poor design of our roads, ( Whippingham ,Forest Road, Middle Road,Milli Road, Beaper Shute, Fighting Cocks and StMarys , Newport town centre and very soon Ryde interchange) having 100 police wouldn’t make any difference.
Speed cameras and anpr islandwide is the only way to Stop
Accidents.
Also making Roads safer with traffic calming measures etc will help.
Saw a Numpty drive through a red light at Branston Cross today.
NO LAW AND ORDER ON ISLAND ROADS IS THE PROBLEM
NO Law AND ORDER ON THE ISLAND. Full stop
Need multiple road blocks to take off no mot/no insurance and no licence drivers and vehicles for starters – police will have a field day. I would not be bothered waiting in a queue for this
Checking papers wearing special uniforms with a skull motif, no doubt.
Voice of reason? Pure irony.
No John that isn’t what he said at all? Simple ANPR Cameras can recognise almost instantly if a vehicle has the correct documentation for it to be on the road…..and we need to start somewhere? If all is on place there is no need for the vehicle to be pulled over?
More often than not the vehicles with no MOT have NO tax and NO insurance either – get these off the road first and straight away you have begun tackling the problem?
Voice of Reason….absolutely!
It’s not the police’s fault but rather the lack of sufficient numbers of officers in order to act as a deterrent to speeding and other forms of dangerous driving. An increasing number of drivers believe (quite reasonably) that they can get away with it because there is little chance of them getting caught. The fairly recent increased number of accidents is unlikely to be down to the design of the referenced roads, other than St Mary’s, since their configuration has not changed significantly over the years but the number of accidents has significantly increased.
I think the coroner was moaning about how long the police took to file a report where there is a road death. Agreed, more RPU’s will not lead to less accidents. It might mean a few more convictions for no insurance/licence etc. That’s down to the fact that only PRu vehicles have ANPR fitted.Every cop car should have one, whatever the cost !!!
100 officers patrolling the worst hotspots for accidents , 100 officers going to schools to educate younger people and show them the reality of speed, 100 officers carrying out roadside drug and alcohol tests and eyesight tests. 100 officers checking the road worthiness of vehicles. Yes I think a huge amount more can be done on the island. As the mother of an accident victim ( life changing not fatal) I just want to scream at the local service and authority to get their flipping heads together and come up with a good and consistent campaign to reduce accidents. They are done elsewhere in the country so why not here! And the roads should be looked at for design and speed limits to see if anything can be changed.no more deaths!
We, Mr Cairns family, waited 91 weeks. Wholly unacceptable. Ms Sumeray wasted an hour of court time grilling PS Corby about Island Road safety during my Father’s inquest. She also publicly berated me, his grieving daughter, for instigating the justified complaint. I am currently writing a formal complaint to the chief Coroner. I will update the Island Echo in due course. Thank goodness for free press in this country!
Perhaps instead of concentrating on speeding motorists travelling at 34mph on safe roads with good hiding places for mobile camera van they should concentrate on accident black spots or even supermarket car parks and watch the coffin dodgers who take 20 minutes to cross the car park on foot and another 10minutes to get into their car before riding the clutch out of the car park
Hopefully you won’t live long enough to be a coffin dodger.
So why are the majority of accidents caused by young drivers, pathetic fool just remember you will be one of those “coffin dodgers” you despise unless you do the planet a favour and go early.
Probably cause they were frustrated and overtaking clutch riding coffin dodgers like you Reg?
Get on with it and we pay for this
I just don’t understand WHY the cameras are not in use.
Just put more cameras on the Island it would work two fold.
It would generate money in fines which would pay for the cameras.
Hitting the pocket of speeding drivers will always works.
How hard could it be!
Speed cameras are not used for a very simple reason, councils have to pay for their installation and upkeep and revenues generated go straight into government coffers the council is then left seriously out of pocket!
That is the Tory way. Make us pay and they keep the money.
Plus if a driver doesn’t have insurance, tax, licence or mot, they most likely won’t care about getting a speeding ticket.
1) Test examiners & driving instructors need examining to a higher degree. Whatever happened to the teaching of reading the road ahead, not to mention having the ability to reverse. No new drivers appear to have theses skills.
2). Drink & drug drivers should be banned for 5 years min, that perhaps would make them think before driving.
3). Mrs Sumeray should go back to locking up filth, dealing with the kind of people who deserve a piece of her sharp tongue. She does not have the ability to deal with the bereaved. I have heard her speak to a grieving family about their loved one. She is removed from all forms of empathy. Mention her name to any department or service on the Island who deal with after life & their eyes roll.
When they cut the force every man, woman and dog said that this would happen. They did it anyway. Time politicians are held responsible for their actions. If a builder did something that endangered their workers after being told not to they would be prosecuted if a death happened. Time to round up the Tories and put them on trial.
Ok, I know this comment may be unpopular with some but take a moment to look at the evidence. The Police & community seem somewhat obsessed with speeding motorists being the problem. To combat this we have multiple mobile speed enforcement vehicles and two dedicated officers so things should be getting better right? Well they are not, they are getting worse. Either we suddenly have more speeders than we ever did before, or the problem actually lies elsewhere? Perhaps its time to look at road design and junction visibility? After all, we all want safer roads don’t we and its becoming obvious that our current measures to tackle our problems clearly are not working!
Do what Cornwall and Wales are doing
20MPH
https://youtu.be/Se3r442IeRI?si=PALmXZYwEH58AltH
THAT WILL STOP THE IDIOTS WHO SPEED ON THE ISLAND
FINES IN THE POST WILL SOLVE THE SPEEDING PROBLEMS ON THE ISLAND
AND MAKE THE POLICE’S JOBS EASIER SO THEY CAN CONCENTRATE ON OTHER
ISSUES