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03
Dec 2023
Campaigners shocked as Harrogate district has highest number of fatal accidents in county
Road safety campaigners say they are shocked after data revealed the Harrogate district has the highest number of fatal accidents in the county.
Data released by North Yorkshire Council, showed 16 of 89 fatal collisions in North Yorkshire happened in the Harrogate district. Only Selby had the same number.
The data is taken from January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2022.
Hazel Peacock, Dr Jenny Marks, Dr Vicki Evans and Ruth Lily of the Oatlands and Pannal Ash Road Safety & Active Travel Campaign, told the Stray Ferret:
The group said the statistics show the need to reduce speed limits from 30mph to 20mph is “really clear”.
Annual fatal accident statistics
2019: Six fatal collisions happened in the Harrogate and Scarborough districts which is the highest number within the period - equating to around one every two months.
During the same period, Richmondshire did not report any fatal collisions, while Selby reported just one.
A breakdown of collisions (and the severity) in the Harrogate district. Credit: North Yorkshire Council.
However, the statistics show numbers more than halved in the Harrogate district during the pandemic.
2020: Three fatal incidents happened but in Craven and Selby numbers shot up with six fatal crashes in the same year.
2021 and 2022: After lockdown restrictions lifted, the Harrogate district saw a further seven fatal collisions.
Selby reported another nine during the same period, while Craven and Richmondshire saw just two.
Read more:
- Council quashes hopes of west Harrogate bypass
- 20mph speed limit proposed for Harrogate's Woodfield Road
The number of fatal collisions in the Harrogate district is inconsistent over the four-year period.
Although the Harrogate district has the largest population many people will question why the figure is so much higher than the rest of the county.
Cllr Keane Duncan, North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for highways and transportation, said:
The Harrogate district also saw 730 road collisions in total during the period -- the highest in North Yorkshire – which accounted for almost a quarter of all collisions across the county.
Mr Duncan added:
2023 - a bad year
Throughout 2023, the Stray Ferret has already reported on six fatal collisions in the Harrogate district, meaning this year’s figures have increased again.
Five people died in car crashes on the A61, which runs between Ripon and Harrogate, this year.
A 59-year-old motorcyclist was killed on the A61 on August 29. Officers believe that the motorcyclist was travelling with a group of unknown motorcycles immediately before the collision and he was at the rear of the group.
Just a few days later, three members of a Ukrainian family were killed in a three-vehicle crash that involved a double decker bus on Sunday, September 3. One child was left orphaned.
Most recently, a man in his 90s was hit by a car on the road, near Killinghall, after getting off the 36 bus.
Fatal collisions also happened on Brimham Rocks Road, near Pateley Bridge, North Park Road in Harrogate and the B6265 near Boroughbridge.
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