Croydon’s roads continue to get more dangerous – Inside Croydon

Transport Correspondent JEREMY CLACKSON on the shocking rise in road collisions – and deaths – in Croydon as safety improves elsewhere in the country

Destroyed: are Croydon’s roads more dangerous, or are our drivers worse than in other parts of the country?

Croydon has achieved the dubious distinction of having the second highest increase in road fatalities in London over the past decade and the highest increase in the capital over the past year – at a time when the general trends across the country are for fewer collisions.

Data compiled by the Department for Transport, known as Stats 19, shows that in the 10 years from 2014 to 2023, the capital saw a fall in “all casualties” – meaning people killed, seriously injured or “only” injured – with 15% to 26,138. Between 2022 and 2023, the figure dropped by 4%.

DfT figures show there were 1,258 road fatalities in Croydon in 2023 – a 15% increase on the previous year (1,093). This was the highest figure recorded in the last decade.

In Croydon, 155 people were seriously injured on the roads last year, four of whom died. In 2022, two people died in road collisions in Croydon.

The number of deaths and injuries on Croydon’s roads for children is even more worrying.

Research by Personal Injury Claims UK found that Croydon had the highest number of recorded child pedestrian fatalities in London, with 91 fatalities between 2021 and 2022 (based on DfT figures covering 304 local authorities in England, from the previous period of 12 months.

Children at risk: FoI figures show that Croydon is consistently and by far the worst borough in London for road traffic collisions affecting children.

Transport for London is joining other major cities around the world in taking action to end the toll of death and injury seen on their transport networks by committing to something called ‘Vision Zero’.

The policy was conceived in Sweden 30 years ago and can be summed up in one sentence: “No loss of human life is acceptable.” Based on the simple fact that we are all human and make mistakes, it aims to create an improved road system designed to protect us all at every turn.

The Mayor of London’s Transport Strategy sets the target for all deaths and serious injuries to be eliminated from London’s transport network by 2041.

Croydon creates a problem in achieving such a goal.

Since 2014, fatalities due to road violence and indifference to road safety have increased by 144, an increase of almost 13%. In the years 2022 to 2023, they increased by 165, a shameful 15%.

And road safety campaigners are increasingly concerned that pro-car Perry, the borough’s elected Tory mayor, is making matters worse and evading scrutiny while doing so.

As one transport activist put it Inside Croydon: “There is no Vision Zero in Croydon, just zero vision.

“Not only do we have a mayor who marks his homework, but he chooses the topics and questions he deems most convenient, while ignoring those that protect life and limb.”

Mayor Jason Perry’s 2022-2026 business plan for Croydon includes the aspiration that “Croydon is a cleaner, safer and healthier place”, but he is accused of merely achieving such aims.

Vision Zero: London’s road safety targets could be smashed by Croydon

“There’s a lot of stuff about safety in the business plan, but nothing applies to the streets where people live and travel. Not a single reference to this issue is among the 80 primary indicators.

“It’s no surprise that Perry’s plan to make Brighton Road cycle lanes even more dangerous follows the sabotage that took place within days of the original scheme being unveiled. Perry made sure he was set up to fail.”

Scott Roche is Perry’s cabinet member for streets and environment and Croydon’s representative on the London Road Safety Board. That makes him nominally responsible for making Croydon’s roads less lethal. Whether he shows up at any of the LRSC meetings is another matter.

If Roche’s response to public concerns is anything to go by, he doesn’t really care.

For example, in July 2022, when questioned by a South Norwood resident about what he would do to stop the dangerous rat run along Southern Avenue, Roche pointed the finger at Labor for causing the problem by creating an LTN – a low-traffic neighborhood – and said he would ask the police to do some enforcement. Well, that’s it.

Meanwhile, while pro-pollution Perry and Roche use road safety as just something to score political points with, Croydon’s children and adult pedestrians, cyclists and all road users will be at risk of life and limb on a daily basis .

Read more: Perry’s cycle track ‘vandalism’ could cost council £1m
Read more: The mayor is sneaking in overnight parking charges across the borough

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• ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s most rotten boroughs for the seventh consecutive year in the annual summary of civic advertising in Private magazine