Ambitions to improve road safety in the UK could be jeopardised by a vote to leave the European Union next week, the Shadow Transport Minister Richard Burden has warned.

 

Speaking yesterday at the Safer Vehicles 2016 conference in Westminster the Labour MP said: “I do think the EU is an important vehicle for countries to pool resources, develop policies to make our vehicles and our roads safer and to provide standardisation.

 

“My view is that remaining in the EU is relevant to this safety agenda. In order to make good progress I hope the UK chooses to remain in the EU.”

 

Richard Burden went on to welcome the promotion of autonomous vehicle technology as part of the Modern Transport Bill announced in the Queen’s Speech. This could, he said, represent a boon for the country’s manufacturing sector.

 

But he added: “We must consider what infrastructure investments will be necessary and how public transport and vulnerable road users may be affected.”

 

He also told the conference – organised by the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety – that despite a downward trend in the number of people killed and seriously injured (KSI) on UK roads “there isn’t any room for complacency”.

 

He added: “Ministers talk about road safety being a priority – and I have no doubt they are being sincere – but they are falling short of lofty ideals. In the last Parliament there was a scrapping of road safety targets and I do think there is a link between targets and reducing the number of KSIs.”

 

The Shadow Minister added that road safety enforcement could be better, claiming that the number of road policing officers outside London had fallen by over 1400 in five years. He went on to say that more needs to be done to crack down on motorists who drive while using a mobile phone.

 

Also at the conference, Transport for London’s head of strategy and outcome planning Lilli Matson said that heavy goods vehicles pose a major concern for road safety in the capital, accounting for a quarter of all fatalities and 38% of cyclist fatalities.

 

But in terms of improving truck safety, she said, “we are at a bit of a watershed”.

 

She explained that more mirrors, sensors and cameras are being added to vehicles to try and provide better information to drivers. “But there must come a point where you have six mirrors, three windows and a sensor bleeping and you reach sensory overload.

 

“For us the issue is do we continue to push for more of that or do we say, actually, why not change the way trucks are designed and work with manufacturers so drivers can see a lot more easily?

 

“Our aspiration is to move towards this ‘direct vision’ and ultimately we want to work towards a legally definable standard as to what direct vision means.”