IAM RoadSmart, the UK’s biggest independent road safety charity, said it is concerned by lack of progress in road deaths – and calls for a new focus on driver behaviour.
Although cars are getting safer and there has been a step change in new road investment, careless human behaviour and increasing traffic levels are cancelling this out, according to the charity.
The UK’s Department of Transport announced this week that there were 1,793 reported road deaths in 2017 – an increase of one on 2016.
There were 24,831 people seriously injured in reported road traffic accidents in 2017 and 170,993 casualties of all severities.
“Although the number of casualties of all severities in reported road traffic accidents in 2017 is 6% lower than in 2016 and is the lowest level on record, the number of fatalities has increased, albeit by just one,” said Neil Greig, IAM RoadSmart director of policy and research.
“Road safety in the UK seems to be bumping along the floor with yet another year without real improvement in key fatal injury statistics.
“With seven 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.”
