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Elephant & Castle ‘most dangerous’ spot for road injuries in London

London SE1 website team

More road users are injured at the Elephant & Castle's northern roundabout than at any other location in London, according to statistics obtained by campaign group Southwark Living Streets.

Elephant & Castle ‘most dangerous’ spot for road injuries in London

Transport for London's accident statistics for 2008 to 2010 show that there was a total of 89 casualties at the northern roundabout during this three-year period. This represents an average of one casualty every 12 days.

The 89 casualties are made up of one fatality, seven people with serious injuries and 81 people with minor injuries.

The victims included 6 pedestrians, 36 pedal cyclists, 15 motorcyclists, 17 car or taxi occupants and 15 bus passengers. Two of the casualties were children.

Southwark Living Streets says that this figure is more than 10 per cent above the next most dangerous spot in the capital which is a gyratory on the North Circular in east London.

The statistics were obtained by Craig Stansfield from Southwark Living Streets.

He said: "There is no evidence casualty levels are falling. There were 27 casualties in 2008 and the figure even rose to 34 in 2009. Thankfully the figure has fallen back slightly to 28 in 2010."

Southwark Living Streets has criticised the Mayor of London's "smoothing traffic flow" agenda which has led to TfL's decision to block plans to create a new civic square where the northern roundabout now sits.

"The figures will come as no surprise to all those who pass through the area," says Jeremy Leach, chair of Southwark Living Streets.

"As well as these shocking numbers, the northern roundabout and the other TfL roads such as the New Kent Road are a massive barrier to pedestrians and cyclists who want to cross north-south in Southwark.

"It is vital that TfL makes the whole area safer for every road user by getting rid of the roundabout, having safe crossings at surface level and making the maximum speed 20 miles an hour.

"We strongly urge TfL to get behind the Living Streets City of 20 campaign which aims to introduce 20 mph on mayoral controlled streets where people live, work and shop."

TfL points out that only one road user – cyclist Meryem Ozekman – has been killed at the Elephant & Castle in the past three years, and the local statistics should be seen in the context of an overall reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads in London over the last five years.

"TfL has been working towards improving conditions at Elephant & Castle for several years, and in fact improvements to the southern roundabout have just been completed," says a Transport for London spokesman.

"We are extremely keen to improve the northern roundabout and are actively working up this scheme.

"Detailed design proposals are being discussed between TfL, the borough and the developer. The implementation of these proposals will require section 106 developer funding.

"We are aware of the road safety issues with the roundabout, which is a key reason for TfL wanting to make significant changes to the road layout in the area.

"We continue to monitor the location closely, and the number of collisions on the Elephant & Castle northern roundabout fell by 17 per cent in 2010 compared to 2009."

There was only one serious injury at the junction last year compared to four in 2009 and two in 2008.

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