Research reports

As well as issuing road safety policy statements and working with government and the media, the IAM RoadSmart Policy & Research Team undertake research into driver behaviour and a range of other road safety issues. Following are a sample of our recent published reports.

Licensed to skill: contributory factors in road accidents

Research report posted on 19/02/16 |
Safer Road Users

Driver and rider error is the biggest contributory factor in both deaths and serious injuries on our roads today.

This report looks at five years’ worth of accident data recorded by the police and analyses the different contributory factors.

Human error factors including ‘loss of control’, ‘failed to look properly’, and ‘poor turn or manoeuvre’, accounted for 65 per cent of fatal, 61 per cent of serious and 68 per cent of slight accidents. Failed to look is the single greatest cause of crashes and this is consistent across all age groups. It is clear that only driver training can really address the key reasons that people crash.

Supporting media

  • Licensed to skill 1
    Licensed to skill IAM RoadSmart Report
    1 MB