Road safety progress stuck in the slow lane – IAM RoadSmart calls for government action plan to be published soon

With no significant progress in the reduction of numbers of people killed and seriously injured on the roads in the UK in the 12 months to June, IAM RoadSmart has expressed its disappointment that road safety remains in the doldrums.

IAM RoadSmart, the UK’s biggest independent road safety charity, believes that underlying human behaviour and increasing traffic levels are cancelling out advances in vehicle safety and new road investment.

This morning (8 November) the Department of Transport announced the latest casualty figures which showed there were 1,770 road deaths in the year ending June 2018 - a figure that has been largely static since 2012.

The figures show there were 26,610 people killed or seriously injured (KSI) reported to the police in the year ending June 2018, compared with 26,664 in the year ending June 2017.

Between April and June 2018, 400 people were killed in reported road crashes. This is a decrease of 1% compared to the same quarter of 2017. In addition there were 7,060 killed or seriously injured casualties and 33,620 slightly injured casualties during this quarter.

Neil Greig, IAM RoadSmart director of policy and research, said: “Road safety in the UK seems to be once again bumping along the floor with no forward progress.

“With eight years without progress it is clear that we have an increasingly complex picture of good news, such as safer cars and investment in new roads, being cancelled out by more traffic and a hard core of human behaviour issues that are the most difficult to tackle.

“Road safety is everyone’s responsibility and the Department of Transport has rightly identified young drivers, older road users, rural roads and motorcycling as its key priority areas.  Today’s figures are a sharp reminder that their eagerly awaited action plan for the next two years cannot come too soon."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Further information from:

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IAM RoadSmart has a mission to make better drivers and riders in order to improve road safety, inspire confidence and make driving and riding enjoyable. It does this through a range of courses for all road users, from online assessments through to the advanced driving and riding tests. IAM RoadSmart is the trading name of all businesses operated by the UK’s largest road safety charity, the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) and was formed in April 2016 combining the IAM, IAM Drive & Survive, PDS and IAM Driver Retraining Academy. The organisation has 92,000 members and campaigns on road safety on their behalf. At any one time there are over 7,000 drivers and riders actively engaged with IAM RoadSmart’s courses, from members of the public to company drivers, while our Driver Retraining Academy has helped 2,500 drivers to shorten their bans through education and support programmes.

To find out more about IAM RoadSmart commercial products and services visit the new website www.iamroadsmart.com/business                                       

To find out more about IAM RoadSmart’s Driver Retraining Academy visit www.iamdra.org.uk                                

To find out the name of your own local IAM RoadSmart group please visit: https://wwwiamroadsmart.com/local-groups                  

ENDS ALL