Motoring offences down by over 11% in Derry & Strabane

The Chairperson of the Derry and Strabane Policing and Community Safety Partnership (PCSP), Councillor Martin Reilly has welcomed the release by PSNI of the motoring offence statistics for the 12 months from September 2019 to August 2020.

Commenting on the report Councillor Reilly (pictured) stated: “On behalf of the Derry and Strabane PCSP I welcome this update on road safety which shows that in our council area motoring offences have dropped from 4116 to 3633. This represents a reduction of 483 offences or 11.7% when compared to the same period last year.

The number of motoring offences for our council area for this 12 month period equates to 308 per 10,000 of population aged over 16. This is lower than the six council areas of Belfast City, Causeway Coast and Glens, Mid-Ulster, Armagh, Banbridge & Craigavon, Newry, Mourne & Down and Antrim & Newtownabbey but still higher than the other four council districts.”

Colr. Reilly added: “Your PCSP has been working closely with emergency services and partners in Roadsafe NI, Life After and New Driver NI to promote road safety awareness among all our citizens and these figures show that our message is being listened to.

“PSNI statistics also show that our Council area has recorded the lowest number of road fatalities across the 11 council districts between January and August 2020.

“However, I would state that any death on our roads is one fatality too many. I would commend all our partners involved in making our roads safer but would caution that we cannot become complacent and we must continue to drive home a clear road safety message to all road users.”

It is likely that alongside the road safety initiatives, part of the drop in numbers may be down to the drop off in traffic during the lockdown earlier this year and other restrictions since.

The report can be found at: www.psni.police.uk/inside-psni/Statistics/motoring-offences-statistics/