IAM RoadSmart backs calls for £220 million investment on high risk roads around the UK to cut deaths and injuries

The UK’s biggest road safety charity IAM RoadSmart is giving its backing to a campaign by the Road Safety Foundation for the government to inject £220 million in improving the most high risk ‘A’ roads across the  country.

Last year the Government allocated a £175 million Safer Roads Fund to tackle the 50 most dangerous local A roads in England. These roads have been inspected, solutions designed and the first findings will be reported in 2018, but funding is needed to improve a further 6,000 kms of high risk routes.

IAM RoadSmart believes the investment is a relatively low-cost way of making an immediate difference to roads that are a risk to high numbers of road users.

Neil Greig, IAM RoadSmart director of policy and research, said: “A lot of research has gone into identifying which roads could be improved at a modest cost, delivering fewer serious injury and fatal crashes, as well as less disruption on our already overburdened roads.”

For the first time, the Road Safety Foundation/Ageas UK partnership has launched an interactive Road Crash Index which shows the level of road safety improvement (or declining performance) in each county between 2010-12 and 2013-15. That information can be found at www.roadcrashindex.org   

IAM RoadSmart’s own Safety Culture Survey (to be launched later this week) found that 83% of drivers support the publishing of annual maps that show the locations of motor vehicle accidents in which people were seriously injured or killed.

The road at the top of this year’s list is the A537 between Macclesfield and Buxton, known as the Cat and Fiddle, in the Peak District. This short section of road has been listed in the persistently higher risk list six times in the last 10 years. At its peak in around 2006 to 2009 there were around 10 fatal and serious crashes on average every year.

With high risk roads spread all over the UK it is more important than ever that drivers ensure they are at the top of their game on rural roads. For just £49 a ‘Driving on Country Roads’ module can equip you to avoid the largest single cause of death on the network - run-off crashes, or the largest single cause of serious injury - crashes at junctions.

The on-road modules are delivered by an IAM RoadSmart expert in your own car at a time to suit you.  He/she will give you in-depth 1-2-1 coaching during your course and hopefully leave you feeling able to tackle the road ahead with confidence and enjoyment. For more information click here: https://www.iamroadsmart.com/on-road-offer

To book call 0300 303 1134 or email support@iam.org.uk

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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 products and services visit the new website www.iamroadsmart.com                          

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    

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