50mph limit labelled “catastrophic”

Monday 08 October 2018

Increasing the speed limit to 50mph would have "catastrophic" consequences and make the island's roads more dangerous, a Police official has said.

The comments came from Road Safety Officer Philip Blake after a petition calling for a higher speed limit accelerated to over 1,000 signatures in little over a week.

Although Minister for Infrastructure Deputy Kevin Lewis remained tight-lipped about the issue, Mr Blake has made his position perfectly clear in opposing calls to increase the speed limit above 40mph.

However, Mr Blake says that even an increase of 10mph could be disastrous for road safety. “I would not support an increase in the speed limit to 50mph. Almost all collisions are as a result of driver error in Jersey, TRL estimate that as many as 90% of injury accidents in the UK are due to driver error," he told Express.

“Although car breaking systems and protection for drivers and passengers has improved greatly over the years, this does not negate the issue that if a car hits a pedestrian or cyclist, the outcome will likely be catastrophic if they are hit at an extra 10mph.”

Pictured: Road Safety Officer Philip Blake has expressed his rejection of calls to increase the speed limit to 50mph as it could make Jersey's roads more dangerous.

Mr Blake warned that increasing the speed limit could mean a reduction in driver reaction time: “The faster we drive, the less time we have to assess approaching hazards and decide on how we are going to react appropriately."

He later added that 40mph could actually already be too high on some roads.

“Jersey’s roads are generally quite narrow, the volumes of traffic are growing, and the sizes of some cars are increasing. In my opinion, there really aren’t many roads where a 40mph limit can be justified in these conditions any longer - let alone an increase in speed limit.”

At the time of writing, the petition has been signed by 1,153 people and will therefore receive an official response from the Minister for Infrastructure, who has political responsibility for speed limit decisions, in the coming weeks. If it gains 5,000 signatures, the States Assembly will have to debate the idea.