Street layout changes 'could cut road deaths'

The layout of streets needs to change to cut the risk of road deaths, the North's Environment Minister said today.

Traffic in the Northern could be reduced to 15mph in danger spots as ministers wrestle with a problem which has left 104 dead this year.

Road traffic accidents cost the economy about £1.6m (€1.7m) across a victim's lifetime as well as the anguish for friends and relatives, Minister Sammy Wilson said.

"There are ways in which the two Departments (Environment and Regional Development) could co-operate when it comes to designing housing areas, streets, towns etc," he added.

"We have got to build out some of the risks that there is with traffic so that we reduce the figures (for killed and seriously injured)."

Earlier this week Eamon McIntyre, 17, died in a road accident in Co Derry as he went to meet friends before a school formal event.

There was a crash involving his car and a lorry on Boleran Road, near Garvagh, at 6pm on Wednesday.

Mr Wilson was in England recently examining how other areas reduce speeds to 15mph using road layout.

The minister was in the village of Poundbury in England which is using innovative measures to control traffic.

These include removing footpaths so motorists have to share residential roads with pedestrians, and placing trees in the middle of the route so it is impossible to drive fast.

Drivers cannot see further than about 30 yards because of bends in the road, and houses are not laid out in a straight line, forcing vehicles to slow down.

Mr Wilson added: "As a result you couldn't drive fast around it and you don't need a policeman to stop people because they can't physically do it.

"If you put in speed limits the next thing you have got to put in traffic calming measures, and people speed between each hump and chicane, and people slowing down and accelerating causes pollution."