Mr. Sam Waide:

There were a number of questions there. On the one about rural roads, the Deputy is correct in saying the large majority of fatalities occur on roads with speed limits of 80 km/h and above. I would go further than that, however, and I will bring in my colleague Mr. Rowland, who has some of the details. It is not just roads with speed limits of 80 km/h and above, because we know from our statistics that motorways are, in the main, if used in the appropriate way with the appropriate speed and conditions, relatively safe. It is the single-carriageway roads, the 80 km/h or 100 km/h roads, that present the biggest risk, and we as an authority have always supported the improvement of those roads because, as I said earlier during another part of the conversation, the data does not lie. That is where the highest risk occurs.

Sweden is one of the leading countries in western Europe for road safety and it recognises the risks on single-carriageway roads for pedestrians, motorists, cyclists and motorcyclists. It has introduced engineering solutions, particularly at T-junctions, that are based on chicanes to slow down the traffic. We have all been there coming onto a 100 km/h stretch of road from a T-junction and it can be high risk, especially if there is a lot of traffic. We would ask this committee to support that continued and increased investment particularly for those roads of more than 100 km/h.

For the other questions, I might pass over to Mr. Rowland to comment on some of the statistics.