UK 'first for road safety'

Date: 8/3/2011

The UK is first internationally when it comes to road safety, but care must be taken that this position is not lost, it has been claimed.

According to the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM), this standing marks an improvement from the sixth and fourth place the country held in 2007 and 2008 respectively.

Figures for the first three quarters of 2010 have suggested that the number of people to lose their lives while travelling on the roads last year will be below 2,000 - a decline from the 2,222 recorded in 2009.

However, a new report from the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety and the RAC has warned that a combination of traffic growth and budget cuts could cause the number of road fatalities in the UK to rise.

In addition, the groups claimed that nine out of ten safety professionals believe that spending less on road and transport safety could harm such projects and end any further falls in casualty numbers.

Professor Stephen Glaister, Director of the RAC Foundation, says: "The evidence is that countries which set firm targets have much better safety records than those that don't."

Meanwhile, IAM director of policy and research Neil Greig says that in the past 20 years, meeting casualty reduction targets has saved the economy £50 billion.

Posted by Sarah Bailey