A3 CRASH BARRIER WIN - FIGURES SHOW LIVES SAVED

• MP "delighted" for residents as long campaign wins vergeside safety barriers

• New accident figures show A3 speed limit reduction has saved lives

New safety barriers for Tolworth Rise South by the A3 Kingston By-pass will be installed this summer, after a long campaign by residents with the active support of Lib Dem MP, Edward Davey. The news came at a meeting in Parliament last Thursday (1/02/01) between Mr. Davey and Transport for London (TfL), when final confirmation was given that this key safety project had been won.

Mr. Davey first raised this issue in the House of Commons on February 12^th 1998, when he won a reduction in the speed limit on the Kingston By-pass down to 50mph. Since then, he has continually raised the matter and has expressed his "delight" that his pressure has now paid off. This week he rang residents with whom he campaigned to share the news. Commenting, Mr. Davey said:

"This is a major achievement for residents and will help save lives and damage to property. Over the years, cars and lorries have careered off the A3, across the service road and into people’s properties.

"When elected, I was appalled to hear nothing had been done, although residents had campaigned for over twenty years. So I decided to join in with their campaign and take the matter to the Floor of the House of Commons for the first time."

Mr. Davey was also pleased to receive from TfL officials a very positive report about accident reduction on the A3, after his 1998 victory in reducing the speed limit. Latest figures show that, after 23 months of monitoring, accidents have fallen by 48%, whilst accidents when someone is killed or seriously injured fell by an amazing 73%, from 26 to 7 accidents. These results are statistically significant, with a 99% probability that the reduction was due to the speed limit coming down.

Commenting , Mr. Davey said:

"This major fall in accidents show residents were right to ask me to seek a cut in the speed limit. We already knew the speed reduction had cut the noise pollution suffered by residents. Now we know it has saved lives and made the A3 much safer.

"There is still much more to do, especially on the service roads, but this has been a significant step forward. The only question is, why wasn’t this done much earlier?"

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