15 professional road safety organisations representing road safety officers, engineers, researchers and the private sector have submitted a joint memorandum to the Transport Select Committee for its inquiry into the Strategic Framework for Road Safety.
The initiative has been co-ordinated by PACTS and the groups have come together as a reflection of the collective work that goes in to achieve road safety outcomes – road safety is a shared responsibility and the joint memorandum reflects commitment to that approach.
The memorandum also calls for a new duty to be placed on the secretary of state for transport to ensure the safety of roads in
James Gibson, Road Safety GB press & PR officer, said: “Producing this detailed collaborative submission to the inquiry into the Road Safety Framework is without doubt the right approach.
"I’m very grateful to PACTS for co-ordinating this detailed piece of work for the 15 organisations that are represented. It is essential to make our views known to the Transport Select Committee on this issue.”
Click here for a full copy of the submission, or for more information contact Robert Gifford, executive director of PACTS on 020 7222 7732.
Hi Mark. Road safety has improved throughout my lifetime so the important factor is the rate of improvement. Analysis is not difficult and I explain what I have found here:
http://www.speedcamerareport.co.uk/05_gb_road_safety.htm
Remember that all this definitely occurred, the question is why?
Hi Wayne. What makes you think I’m a ‘telephone engineer’?
As for ‘spin, deception or incompetence’, where do you want to start? Keeping on topic, the joint memorandum states “Target setting has therefore been a positive policy development” whilst failing to state that the 1st target “of a reduction of one-third in all casualties” was a total failure. Casualties hardly changed at all in that period.
The main 2nd target was “To cut death and serious injury (KSI) by 40% by 2010” which was simply the trend prior to the target. KSI had fallen by just over 40% in the previous period so setting a target requiring that they simply continue falling as before is hardly glowing success especially considering that the only reason the target was met was the recession. And the joint memorandum completely ignores the collapse of road safety from the mid 90s as detailed in the above link.
Dave Finney – Slough
0
Interesting to see Dave Finney accusing others of, ‘spin, deception or incompetence’. Given that he is a telephone engineer who has no experience of working in road safety I wonder how he is qualified to make these comments?
I do not want this valuable forum to turn into a ‘flame-war’ but could the moderators consider what comments they allow to be published as the news feed?
Wayne, Oxfordshire
0
I seem to be looking at a different set of data to Mr Finney. RCGB appears to show a very significant fall in the number killed and seriously injured on our roads over the last decade and a half. Is that a ‘failure’? Were we expected to kill more?
Mark Jessop. East Riding of Yorkshire
0
The submission seems largely full of the usual spin, deception or incompetence but there are some signs of hope, for instance:
“It will be vital to ensure that any interventions are based on a robust research base and are evaluated rigorously”
That would be such a huge departure from current practice and, whilst a bit late in the day, it’s good to see PACTS finally calling for this.
Also:
“The recent substantial reductions in deaths are clearly welcome but may well be related to the overall economic situation. There is therefore no guarantee that the downward trend will continue.”
That’s been fairly clear for some time because the collapse in road safety that started in the mid 90s only recovered from 2007 when the crisis hit.
But, at the end of the day, there’s no money. We have to do better for a lot less. Better may seem easy considering the failures of the last decade and a half but real unbiassed evaluation of evidence will be needed from this point to ensure we stop wasting £ millions. Skills that the road safety industry must start to acquire.
Dave Finney – Slough
0