Beryl Fricker

Growth and Infrastructure - Transportation
Civic Centre
Poole, BH15 2RU

The Coroner’s Office for the County of
Dorset

Bournemouth Town Hall

Bournemouth
BH2 6DY

       Date:    11th March 2020
       Your Ref: 

       Our Ref: 

       Contact: 
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       Tel: 01202 262073

For the attention of Mr Brendan J Allen HM Assistant Coroner for Dorset

Dear Mr Allen,

Re: Regulation 28 report – Inquest Touching the death of Beryl FRICKER

I refer to your letter dated 29th January 2020 to the BCP Council’s Chief Executive, 

, and the Inquest touching the death of Beryl Fricker held on 14th January 2020.

I was very sorry to learn of this incident and I would like to pass on my sincere condolences to
family and friends with regards to their loss both personally, and on behalf of the Council.

With  regards  to  your  report  to  prevent  future  deaths  under  Regulation  28  of  the  Coroner’s
(Investigations) Regulations 2013 I would respond as follows.

Fatal Accident Investigation

The factual information available to BCP Council indicates that Beryl Fricker died as a result of
a head injury received as a consequence of a road traffic collision with a car in Upwey Avenue,
Hamworthy, Poole, at its junction with Lake Road, at 16.35hrs on Tuesday 20th November 2019.

BCP Council carries out joint investigations into all fatal road traffic collisions in conjunction with
the  Dorset  Police  Road  Casualty  Reduction  Officer.  With  regards  to  the  incident  on  Upwey
Avenue, the site was visited by officers on Monday 10th December 2019 (see Appendix A).

The relevant observations to be highlighted as a consequence of this joint investigation included
noting that at the time of the incident, it was cloudy and fast approaching dusk; the streetlighting
present in the area was working at the time of the collision; the pedestrian was wearing dark
clothing;  although  the  vehicle  was  moving  at  a  low  speed  the  pedestrian  was  not  spotted
crossing by the driver of the car until it was too late to avoid a collision.

Investigation into Street Lighting Illumination Levels

‘BCP Council’ is the operational name for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council.

bcpcouncil.gov.uk

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As I understand it, you have indicated in your report that during the course of the inquest the
evidence revealed matters giving rise to concern, namely that in your opinion there is a risk that
future deaths will occur unless action is taken to improve streetlighting levels at the middle of
the junction. You have therefore requested that consideration is given to better illuminating the
junction for all road users.

There are other possible explanations for the failure of the driver to see Beryl Fricker crossing
the  road  which  are  unrelated  to  lighting  levels.  For  example,  the driver's visibility  of  the
pedestrian could have been inhibited by the vehicle’s A-pillar rather than the lighting levels, and
changing the lighting would not have prevented it.

Another  issue  is  that  at  the  time of  the  collision  (dusk),  ambient  lighting levels  may
have been high enough that any street lighting would have been basically ineffectual depending
on  the  level  of  cloud  cover  (sunset  was  at  16:15hrs and civil  twilight  ended at  16:52hrs  on
that day in Poole).

BCP Council’s policy is that it illuminates subsidiary roads and footpaths to lighting class P4 in
accordance with BS5489-1:2013 (Code of practice for the design of road lighting). The Council
Streetlighting Engineer has checked the current street lighting provision at the Upwey Avenue
Lake Road junction by way of producing a lighting report using specialist design software.

This  report  indicates  that  the  existing  lighting  levels  around  the  junction  are  standard  and
appropriate for this location  in terms of the recommended British Standard for the Lighting of
Subsidiary  Roads  &  Footpaths  (see  Appendix  B,  Upwey  Avenue  Lighting  Design  for  further
reference). This lighting class requires the following performance levels and alongside these are
the lighting levels being provided by the existing lighting:

Performance Requirement

Average illuminance over an area (in lux)

Minimum illuminance on an area (in lux)

Class P4
Levels

3.75 - 5.63

0.75

Existing
Lighting

4.95

0.75

The measurement of illuminance (in lux) basically refers to the level of brightness provided by
the lighting. The above shows that the current lighting around the junction is consistent with the
appropriate  British  Standard  requirements  for  this  situation,  albeit  meeting  the  minimum
illuminance level required of 0.75 lux.

For further reference, the street lights in the area use 19W LED lights that were installed in 2016
(Lake Road and Dean Close) and 2017 (Upwey Avenue). These emit a ‘white’ light to a CCT
(colour temperature) of 4000K. All of the lamp posts are 5 metres in height, apart from column
no. 3 on the western corner of Lake Road and Upwey Avenue which is 6 metres high.

In order to carry out a full and detailed assessment of the actual illumination levels on site using
light meters, we are required to visit the location during the day to measure and mark out several
light calculation points on the road and footway, and then follow up with a visit during the hours
of darkness. Unfortunately, the streetlighting team haven’t been able to carry out the required
site  inspections  due  to  the  weather  conditions.  This  is  because  the  inclement  conditions  we
have experienced recently have meant the road surfaces were still fairly wet in the evenings,
and this factor can easily influence the ambient lighting levels we measure.

I can assure you that a site assessment will be carried out shortly when the weather conditions
are more suitable. The results of this survey will then determine our proposals for any potential
amendments or improvements, if considered necessary. BCP Council would not normally make
any improvements to the existing illumination levels at the junction unless this was specifically
recommended as part of any safety report.

Addressing Concerns/Action Plan

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We do have a specific priority to reduce pedestrian casualties, particularly in our urban areas.
The  Council  regularly  reviews  all  collisions  that  result  in  casualties  across  its  whole  road
network, and in the context of our objective of reducing casualties. We do this by focusing our
limited resources on ‘hotspot’ locations that have 7 or more casualties within a 5  year period
that also fall in a 50m radius.

Given this was only the second recorded injury road traffic collision at this location since May
1987, and the collision record for this location is very low, it appears unlikely that another serious
incident will occur here.

Irrespective  of  these  observations  however,  the  Council  does  take  your  concerns  seriously.
Firstly,  we  will  undertake to  investigate  whether any  improvements  to  illumination  levels  can
sensibly be made at the junction once we have carried out a more detailed survey using a light
meter. This is provided that an improvement here would do no harm. For example, upgrading
lighting could be a disproportionate measure because  it may potentially require upgrading all
similar junctions, and also it could possibly result in a mismatch of illumination provision along
Lake Road.

Secondly, in addition to the issue of illumination levels you would appear to raise concerns that
the road layout in some way has either contributed to or at least failed adequately to prevent the
collision, and that there is a potential for further similar collisions given how wide it is across the
Upwey junction with no central refuge.

As with all similar requests received for pedestrian improvements of this nature, the Council will
undertake  an  initial  assessment  of  the  pedestrian  provision  at  the  junction  and  determine
whether it is feasible to either provide a central refuge island or alternatively narrow down the
junction  mouth  to  improve  visibility  as  part  of  a  road  safety  engineering  intervention.  The
assessment process includes recording measurable factors such as the number of pedestrians
crossing  at  peak  times,  the  volume  of  traffic  as  well  as  judging  the  difficulty  people  have  in
crossing the road.

Please  be assured  that  BCP  Council  will  do  what  it  can  to  progress these  potential options,
however, it is not possible to provide timescales at present. It should be noted that funding for
any schemes recommended as a result of these assessments is limited and there is already a
long waiting list of similar improvements across the authority.

I will also ensure that officers are aware of the need to progress relevant survey and prioritisation
work so that we can consider further and respond back to you with additional update information
in due course.

I trust that the above response is helpful but please feel free to contact me again if you require
further clarification about any point I have raised.

Yours sincerely

Service Director
Growth and Infrastructure