Commissioned by the Department for Transport and produced by consultant Systra, the review says that the current absence of a measurable safety performance framework is setting back casualty reduction efforts. A measurable safety performance framework should form the core of a new British road safety strategy and set out a long term goal towards zero deaths and serious injuries.

A framework should include quantitative targets for reducing road casualties up to 2030 and set measurable objectives relating to key safety performance indicatorsincreasing compliance with speed limits or reducing drink driving.

“We very much support having national road safety casualty reduction targets,” commented David Davies, Executive Director, Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety. 

He welcomed the call to monitor progress against key safety indicators, which he said forms an important element of the Safe System approach. PACTS is currently working on a project in association with motor insurer Ageas to develop a set of performance indicators for the UK.

Neil Greig, Director of Policy and Research, IAM RoadSmart added: “The Safe System is firmly established in the UK but it does need to be backed up by road safety targets. The capacity review found that the lack of targets has led to the perception that road safety is not as high a priority as it could be.”

The review recommends a review of road classification in Britain to ensure that speed limits match function, road design and layout.  This is particularly needed on the single carriageway rural network where 60mph is the national speed limit. Inappropriate speed by users within the posted speed limit is typically cited as a regular contributory factor in crashes on these roads according to the review.

Other measures called for in the review include allocating at least 10% of road infrastructure investment to road safety intervention; considering the introduction of graduated driver licencing and lowering the legal blood alcohol limit for drivers.

♦ European targets to halve the numbers of those killed in road crashes by the end of the decade look unlikely to be met, a report from the European Transport Safety Council has revealed.

The UK is one of several countries currently failing to make significant progress on casualty reduction according to the report ‘Ranking EU Progress on Road Safety’.

It shows that the UK has gone from 1905 killed on roads in 2010 to 1854 in 2014 to an estimated 1783 in 2017 – representing a fall of just 6.4%. In contrast Norway has achieved a 49% decrease in road fatalities between 2010 and 2017.

Photo: Albert Bridge and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence