Our Ref:         FOI-1618-2021

Thank you for your request received on 13 November 2020 asking for information about collisions involving busses and pedestrians on the junction of Tottenham Court Road and Torrington place.

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require.

Safety is our number one priority and we are working tirelessly to eliminate death and serious injury across our network. In July 2018 the Mayor, TfL and Metropolitan Police launched a bold Vision Zero Action Plan (https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/safety-and-security/road-safety/vision-zero-for-london) to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on London's streets by 2041. We are doing everything we can to improve road safety in the capital, including introducing a range of urgent lifesaving measures such as segregated cycle lanes, 20mph speed limits, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, the removal of lorry blind spots and improved motorcycle training.

As part of the Vision Zero plan, TfL is also introducing the Bus Safety Programme which is already driving major improvements in safety across the bus network. The programme includes ten key work streams:
1. A Bus Safety Standard, which requires additional and enhanced safety requirements for buses such as speed-limiting technology and automatic braking
2. Increased emphasis on safety in the management of bus contracts
3. New safety training focused on vulnerable road users for all London’s 25,000 bus drivers
4. Improved quality, consistency and analysis of bus collision investigations
5. Greater transparency on bus collision data and investigations
6. Reduced slips, trips and falls on buses
7. Managed risk of fatigue among bus drivers
8. Support for bus operators trials of new ideas to improve safety
9. Collaborative safety improvements, including operators, the Met Police and the Confidential Incident Reporting Analysis System for Transport
10. Continued use of the Sarah Hope Line, the UK’s first Incident Support Service for those affected by fatal or serious injuries on the transport network

The Mayor’s Vision Zero aim is for no one to be killed in or by a London bus by 2030, and for all deaths and serious injuries from road collisions to be eliminated from London’s streets by 2041. By 2022, we want to reduce the number of people who are killed or seriously injured in, or by, London buses by 70 per cent.

The latest information we are currently able to provide from our database is to end April 2020. Please see the attached data from Aug 2019-Apr 2020. We have also attached an ‘Interpreted listing map’ to help understand what data is being provided. Please note that all 2020 records are currently provisional and subject to change.

The description of how the collision occurred and the contributory factors are the reporting officer’s opinion at the time of reporting and may not be the result of extensive investigation.

In accordance with our obligations under Data Protection legislation some personal data has been removed, as required by section 40(2) of the FOI Act. This is because disclosure of this personal data would be a breach of the legislation, specifically the first principle of Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation which requires all processing of personal data to be fair and lawful. It would not be fair to disclose this personal information when the individuals have no expectation it would be disclosed and TfL has not satisfied one of the conditions which would make the processing ‘fair’.

This exemption to the right of access to information is an absolute exemption and not subject to an assessment of whether the public interest favours use of the exemption.

Please note that we also publish information regarding road safety, including collision data, on our website:

https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/safety-and-security/road-safety
https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/safety-and-security/road-safety/london-collision-map
https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/safety-and-security/road-safety/bus-safety

The Department for Transport (DfT) also regularly publishes collision data on their website: https://data.gov.uk/dataset/cb7ae6f0-4be6-4935-9277-47e5ce24a11f/road-safety-data.

If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please feel free to contact me.
                                                                                                       
If you are considering submitting a further FOI request please think carefully about whether the request is essential at this current time, as answering FOI requests will require the use of limited resources and the attention of staff who could be supporting other essential activity. Where requests are made, please note that our response time may be impacted by the current situation.

Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.

Yours sincerely

Gemma Jacob
Senior FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London

[email protected]

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