How many deaths are needed to change law?
John McSherry ponders the way his life has changed after a crash near his home in Claverley.
“We got a life sentence,” he says. “I had been given a 10 per cent chance of survival, my wife had been given a 30 per cent chance. It has left us both disabled, it has affected my kids, who were left wondering if their mum and dad were going to die, and it has affected the family of the other guy who was killed.”
Mr McSherry and his wife Michelle were also forced to give up the tea rooms they ran together as a result of their injuries.
It is perhaps not surprising, then, that he is in favour of changing the driving test to include compulsory training on rural roads, as proposed by the road safety charity Brake.
Mr McSherry, now 65, and his wife received life-changing injuries in a crash on the A454 in Hilton in 2009. The driver of the other vehicle, who was over the drink-drive limit, was killed. And he says anything which reduces accidents on rural roads can only be a good thing.
“There are different dangers on different types of roads, and going on lanes or motorways is different to driving on A-roads.
“They are different types of roads with different conditions, and people need to be taught to drive on all of them, and that includes rural roads.”
Mr McSherry successfully campaigned for speed cameras to be installed near his home on the B4178 ‘rabbit run’ at Danford, Claverley, but has found it more difficult to get the speed limit reduced.
He says many young drivers are lulled into a false sense of security by the 60mph national speed limit on many country lanes. “Just because the speed limit is 60, it doesn’t mean you should drive at 60,” he says.
“You have got to treat each road differently according to the conditions.”
Brake, which was founded in 1995 to reduce the number of accidents on Britain’s roads, wants compulsory lessons on rural roads for new drivers. It is also calling for a ‘graduated’ system where newly qualified drivers are subject to restrictions.
The figures are quite staggering. Of the 120 young drivers killed in crashes during 2015, 80 per cent of these were on rural roads.
Brake campaigns director Jason Wakeford said: “High speeds, sharp bends, narrow lanes, risky overtaking and the presence of vulnerable road users like cyclists make rural roads the most dangerous by far. The combination of rural roads and novice drivers is lethal.”
As well as compulsory lessons on rural roads, Mr Wakeford has also called for a minimum learning period, and a zero drink-drive limit for new drivers. They would also be subject to restrictions after they passed their test, allowing them to build up their skills over a period of time. Mr Wakeford claims this could save some 400 lives a year on UK roads. “This approach has dramatically reduced road casualties in countries including Australia and New Zealand,” he said.
Ron Ingall, a driving instructor for 45 years, agrees that roads in rural areas present specific problems which need to be addressed.
Mr Ingall, who is chairman of Whitchurch and District Association of Professional Driving Instructors, says he would welcome any move which would broaden the scope of the driving test, but says it might be difficult incorporating rural roads on test routes in major cities.
“The roads used for the tests in Whitchurch already include a mixture of different road types, including rural roads,” he said. “But how are you going to do that in London?”
Mr Ingall says there is a need to improve the standard of driving on country roads. “There’s more accident fatalities involving young drivers on rural roads than in other areas,” he said. “It’s a lack of experience to see what they are coming up against. They are driving too fast for the conditions, they haven’t got the experience to look ahead in front of them.
“When they go round a corner they don’t think there might be a cow in the middle of the road, or a tractor pulling out of a field, they don’t seem to reduce the speed.”
Brake is also calling for a review of speed limits on rural roads, something that is close to Mr McSherry’s heart.
“I have been trying to get the limit reduced on the road up by us, but because it is a B-road, it is very difficult,” he says.
“If it were an A-road, it would be much easier, it doesn’t matter that it is one of the busiest roads in the county.”
Mr Ingall agrees that speed limits in rural areas often do not reflect the speed at which it is safe to drive.
“Side roads are usually the national speed limit of 60mph, while the main road, which is perfectly straight, may could have a 40 or 50mph speed limit on it,” he says.
“But the law also says that you must be able to stop within the distance that you can see ahead.”
