Handling a car accident blackspot

A location where several road traffic accidents have occurred may become known as a car accident blackspot. As no-one wants to have an accident, people do try to reduce the possibility of being involved in a crash in several ways.

Local drivers rapidly become aware of such blackspots, whether through articles in local newspapers and television reports or through conversations with other drivers, and will drive more alertly through these points, but this is no help to drivers from other parts of the UK (or abroad) who may reach these spots unaware.

Governmental organisations may also introduce measures to calm traffic, including speed cameras and warning signs. Nothing, of course, is so effective as all drivers taking care to drive in a safe manner at all times.

However, defining precisely what a blackspot is has proved to be more complex than one may immediately imagine. Research undertaken by the Transport Research Laboratory in Berkshire discussed the problems as follows:

"Sites chosen for further investigation may not necessarily be selected on the number and severity of accidents reported alone. Sites can be chosen on ranking or 'weighting' of accident severity or traffic flow. Traffic flow based criteria requires a reliable and constant source of traffic data. Reliable, long term traffic counting information is difficult and expensive-to acquire and depending on how it is used bias the accident analysis towards sites with low .traffic flows.

"Other factors reflected in accident weighting schemes can include type of road user injured, severity of injury and accident costs. This approach may. favour pedestrian accidents rather than vehicle-vehicle collisions.

"Length of road may be a parameter in rural area considerations.

"However, in the UK, sites chosen for further study are for practical reasons, often selected on totals and severity of accidents alone, without reference to any measure: of exposure such as traffic flow."

This means that the same spot can be an accident blackspot under some methods of consideration and not in others, making it difficult for governmental decisions to pick out the spots to focus on for safety.

Making a car accident compensation claim
If you have been in a car crash that was not your fault, YouClaim can help you make a 100% compensation claim. Our advisors are standing by now to help you decide if you are eligible, and to put you in touch with the best personal injury lawyer for your needs if you decide to go ahead.

You can rely on our experience and ability, as all of the personal injury lawyers we work with are drawn from firms governed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, and you can rely on our promise to handle a car crash claim on an entirely free basis, win or lose.

So contact us today, through internet chat, by requesting a call back, or by calling our free hotline now on 0800 10 757 95 and asking for one of our car accident specialists.