Efforts to make roads safer must now focus on improving highway infrastructure, according to the Road Safety Foundation.

The group's director Dr Steve Lawson (pictured) said: "Most recent improvement in road safety has come from car design and safer driving. But there is a need now to focus on improving infrastructure safety itself in a measurable way."

He added that asking road managers to reduce crash rates in general is not specific enough. "That approach is too weak and must be replaced, because it muddles factors over which road managers have no control such as car safety, hospital care and traffic levels with factors very definitely under their control such as roadside safety barriers or junction layouts."

Highway improvements which the Foundation says can lead to major reductions in the number of serious crashes include removing roadside hazards such as lighting columns, rigid poles and trees and the introduction of anti skid surfacing and road studs.

Single carriageway A roads are seven times more risky than motorways, according to a report launched by the Foundation last week. The most dangerous region in the UK in which to drive is said to be the East Midlands, but the safest is the West Midlands.

Also published last week was Transport Scotland's road casualty statistics for 2012, which showed a 1% reduction in reported casualties on the year before, and a 6% fall in the number of people killed on Scottish roads. But reported serious injuries rose by 5%.

(Photo: Road Safety Foundation)

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