Martin Carnell, Group Manager, Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service & Programme Director, Office for Data Analytics and Nick Cowling, Service Manager for Road Safety and Transport Data, Somerset County Council

Martin Carnell has spent 24 years in the Fire Service and is currently seconded to the Office for Data Analytics. He is passionate about reducing vulnerability within our communities and recognises that this is a cross sector partnership priority that won’t be achieved without working together in a much more collaborative way.

Nick Cowling is currently the service manager for road safety and transport data at Somerset County Council. Nick has 26 years’ experience working in the field of road safety, having started out life as a road safety engineer in the north–east.

Nick has considerable experience with the delivery of all aspects of road safety and local improvement schemes within local authorities and the private sector, especially through partnership working. He leads the multi-disciplinary road safety team in Somerset, and has been a key player in the continued success of the South-West Accident Reduction Working Group (SWARWG). SWARWG has evolved from being the engineering road safety group historically, to being the regional forum for road safety professionals across the south-west.

Presentation: Data Analytics SouthWest - supporting road safety planning and delivery
The presentation will show how the Office of Data Analytics (ODA) southwest programme aims to identify and protect vulnerable people at the earliest opportunity by developing an integrated hub for the collation and sharing of data between multiple agencies.

It will show how it collates data from national sources - police, ambulance and public health, fire and rescue, local authorities and partners - and applies predictive analytics and visualisation to make possible a joined up and collaborative view on vulnerability risk and early intervention opportunities in road safety.

The presenters believe this is closely linked to the road safety analysis document on democratising data and evidence, which recommends creating a data sharing culture. Although there is scope across wider sectors for this approach, early application in the road safety sector has been recognised as a goal in the southwest.

Working with Avon and Somerset Police, Somerset County Council is contributing to the project to help plan its road safety efforts in line with its safer systems strategy and the ODA will help coordinate that including enforcement and engineering activity, using available data for analysis and interpretation not previously applied.