The road safety profession should aim to reduce the death toll on UK roads to 1,000 a year by 2020, saving 1,000 lives over the period, according to a new strategy published by the IAM.
With the vast majority of crashes caused by human error and lapses in concentration, the IAM believes that tackling driver and rider behaviour is the key to cutting road deaths. According to the IAM, cars don’t cause crashes, drivers do.
The key focus of the strategy is to target road users at highest risk – young drivers, older drivers, motorcyclists, business users and cyclists.
Simon Best, IAM chief executive, said: “Cars and roads are getting safer so it’s time to concentrate on the driver by improving their skills and behaviour. Over the decade we will work with around 200,000 road users through education and coaching on driving, riding, cycling and commercial driving.
“As the government looks to publish its road safety strategy we believe that over 1,000 lives can be saved in the next decade by continued partnership between government, local authorities, enforcement agencies and education bodies.
“But 1,000 deaths is still a tragically high figure. Everybody needs to work together to reduce it further. For example, insurers should offer discounts to young drivers who have taken more training after their test.
“Equally, every individual has to take responsibility for their own road risk, whether that is taking the initiative to improve their driving through further training, or simply taking a bit more care.”
For more information contact IAM press office on 020 8996 9777.
Sorry Andrew …you are wrong. Freight industry is more than willing to transfer onto rail, you only have to look at the investment both current and planned to realise this. HGVs contribute a disproportionate amount to whatever statistic you may care to look at, be it environmental or road safety. And in case you havent noticed, rail passenger numbers are growing, and have been growing, at around 5% a year. I myself now use train to commute, and have given up on using car for that.
Gary, Manchester
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Gary – high speed rail will mostly transfer people from normal speed rail not from cars. Overall the vast majority of journeys (passenger or freight) in the UK are made by road, and HSR will have a vanishingly small effect on those numbers. If you want to cut road deaths the only way is to improve things on the roads, whether that be the vehicles, the roads, or as proposed by the IAM the drivers.
Andrew, Coventry
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Susan – one of the benefits of the High Speed Rail proposals is that it frees up capacity on the existing network for freight. Now as you know, a good percentage of accidents are caused by HGV drivers falling asleep at the wheel, so any initiative that takes HGVs off the road and onto rail must be welcomed.
Gary, Manchester
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Will Govt counter or will they see this private sector led contribution as a ‘get out of jail card’?…..the UK still has no Govt led national Road Safety Strategy and the coalition has been in office for over a year….what is the Sec of State for Transport doing with his time?….Oh yes…..haven’t you heard, it’s all about “High Speed Trains” under his watch!….perhaps someone should remind Mr Hammond that his Job Title is ‘Transport’ Sec….roads as well as rail and since he took office road safety professionals have had no road safety targets to achieve or evaluate against? Badly done.
Susan, Warwickshire
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