I am trying to ascertain the number of deaths and accidents caused by the pot holes all over Devon.
We do not hold this information. The recording of contributory factors in a road traffic injury collision is subjective. Of the 78 possible contributory factors under STATS19, a “Poor or defective road surface” can be recorded as a contributory factor in an injury collision. Contributory factors are based on a police officers’ opinion. Require a police officer to have attended the collision. Up to six different contributory factors can be recorded in a collision. And a poor of defective road surface can include potholes but does not mean there were potholes.
We can therefore confirm that over the last full five-year period 2018-2022:
There have been 70 recorded injury collisions within DCC that identified a “ Poor or defective road surface” as one of the contributory factors in the collision. And two of these collisions resulted in fatalities.
• * 2 Fatal injury collisions
• * 20 serious injury collisions
• * 48 slight injury collisions
But if we also considered where the term pothole or pot hole etc had been referenced within the collision description text. Then 17 were recorded over this five-year period.
• * 0 Fatal injury collisions
• * 4 serious injury collisions
• * 13 slight injury collisions