RTCs involving agricultural vehicles 355/2026
FOI Reference: 355/2026
Request
Please provide details of all recorded road traffic collisions over the past 5 years for:
Specific location:
The A489 at or near Snead (including the junction with Snead Road and the surrounding stretch between Churchstoke and Lydham)
Comparator dataset:
Same information for the full length of the A489 within your force area
For both datasets, please provide the following anonymised information for each collision:
- Date and time of collision
- Approximate location (e.g. junction or road section)
- Severity (fatal, serious, slight)
- Vehicle classes involved (clearly identifying any agricultural vehicles such as tractors or farm machinery)
- Manoeuvre type of each vehicle (e.g. crossing the carriageway, turning right, turning left, proceeding ahead)
- Recorded contributory factors for each vehicle (e.g. failed to look properly, failed to judge speed, poor visibility, vehicle manoeuvre)
In addition, please provide summary tables for both datasets showing:
- Total number of collisions
- Number of collisions involving agricultural vehicles
- Breakdown of contributory factors associated with collisions involving agricultural vehicles
Response
Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1(1) (a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Section 1(1) (b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.
Where exemptions are relied upon Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Dyfed Powys Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which: (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information you have requested. However, we are withholding the whole of the requested information since we consider that the Section 12(1) exemption the Cost of Compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit applies to it.
Section 12 (1) – The cost of compliance exceeds the Appropriate Limit
Section 12(1) states: “…Section 1 (1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.”
The cost of providing you with the information requested in respect of your request is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond i.e. the cost of locating and retrieving the information exceeds the “appropriate level” as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004. It is estimated that it would exceed 18 hours (i.e. minimum of 28 hours) to comply with this part of your request. The regulations can be located @ https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2004/3244
The Freedom of Information department has been advised that the information in respect of your request is not held in an easily retrievable format. In light of this and in order to accurately obtain the information relative to your request for the time frame stipulated would involve Dyfed Powys Police accessing and manually reviewing 167 RTC records. We would only be able to provide the time/date and rough location of the RTCs, along with any noted injuries at the time. It has also been established that it would take a minimum of 10 minutes to review and obtain the information for a single record in respect of your request.
We would not hold any information as to the contributory factors of the vehicles involved in the RTCs, or the manoeuvre type of each vehicle. We cannot keyword search on our system to narrow down the search for any RTCs involving any agricultural vehicles, as these would be generally logged as RTCs, and the type of vehicle may be noted on the report.
The process outlined results in the below time estimate:-
167 RTC records x 10 minutes = 28 hours
Time estimate to complete task = 28 hours
In accordance therefore with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for the Whole of this request under Section 17(5) A public authority which, in relation to any request for information, is relying on a claim that section 12 or section 14 applies must, within the time for complying with section 1(1), give the applicant a notice stating that fact.
You may wish to refine and resubmit your request so that it reduces the time shown above to fall within the 18 hours, should you require any further advice in relation to this matter please don’t hesitate to contact the Freedom of Information Unit. Please also be advised that should the request be refined, it does not remove the public authorities right to cite exemptions if relevant.
Although excess cost removes the forces obligations under the Freedom of Information Act to provide any further information, as a gesture of goodwill, I have provided information, relative to the remainder of your request which has been easily retrievable and outlined below. I trust this is helpful, but it does not affect our legal right to rely on the fees regulations for the remainder of your request.
Response
This stretch of road is classified as the ‘A489 Churchstoke to County border’ on our system.
In 2020 there were 2 RTCs reported.
03/04/2020 approx 1230hrs - between Churchstoke-Hyssington. Van v 4x4. No injuries.
13/09/2020 approx 1045hrs - 2 veh. Churchstoke. Were some injury - but severity not noted.
In 2021 there were 0 RTCs reported.
In 2022 there were 2 RTCs reported.
16/09/2022 - approx 1245hrs - Churchstoke. 1 vehicle - agricultural trailer v wall. No injury.
24/11/2022 - Bishops Castle - Churchstoke. 3rd party report - no time known for RTC. 1 vehicle. No noted injury.
In 2023 there was 1 RTC reported.
03/02/2023 - approx 0745hrs. Churchstoke. 1 veh - serious injury.
In 2024 there were 2 RTCs reported.
03/02/2024 - approx 1300hrs - 2 vehicle RTC. Churchstoke. minor injury.
13/12/2024 - approx 0600hrs - at Eastside(WMP area). 1 vehicle. Non injury.
In 2025 there were 2 RTCs reported.
21/04/2025 - approx 11.00hrs. 2 vehicle. Churchstoke. Non injury.
11/12/2025 - approx 16.30hrs. Snead. 2 vehicle RTC. 3 fatalities, 1 seriously injured.
Please note: Some of the above stretches of road is within West Mercia police area, and we may not hold any information regarding RTCs between Snead and Lydham, unless WMP asked us to assist in some way.
The A489 is split into 9 different sections. As a breakdown for this road:
In 2020 there were 21 RTCs reported.
In 2021 there were 26 RTCs reported.
In 2022 there were 25 RTCs reported.
In 2023 there were 33 RTCs reported.
In 2024 there were 26 RTCs reported.
In 2025 there were 36 RTCs reported.
(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 13/04/2026)
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