Brake is marking the start of Road Safety Week 2024 by launching a Road Victims’ Charter which demands essential action for road victims.
The Charter includes a call for government to establish national standards in post-crash response, and commit to extending the rights set out in the Victims’ Code to those impacted by road harm, regardless of where they live or whether a crime has occurred.
Brake is also calling for national, multi-year funding for the provision of support to the affected road victim community, so that every family has access to trauma-informed, face-to-face support within their community, according to their needs.
The Road Victims’ Charter has been written in collaboration with bereaved families, trauma consultants, support staff and professionals from across the criminal justice and medical sectors. It launches at a drop-in event for MPs in Westminster today (Monday 18 November) at 3pm.
While the Government announced last week that it’s working on the UK’s first road safety strategy for over a decade and that it’s exploring setting up the country’s first-ever Road Safety Investigation Branch (RSIB), Brake says road deaths and serious injuries show no significant signs of reduction. The charity also warned that every year more and more families need support to deal with the devastating impact that road crashes have on their lives.
The latest government road casualty statistics show that, in 2023, 1,695 people died on UK roads. A further 28,967 were seriously injured. Road deaths and serious injuries have shown no significant signs of reduction for more than five years.
Brake has now revealed that over the same period in 2023, the charity’s National Road Victim Service provided specialist emotional and practical support to more than 1,500 families across the UK, helping them cope with their grief and navigate the complex procedures that often follow a road crash.
The numbers are already set to be even higher in 2024 too. At any point in time, around 700 road victim families receive support from Brake, including parents, grandparents, siblings, friends and people who have witnessed a traumatic incident. Many of the families supported have been involved in multi-fatality crashes, and around 7% of support cases involve the death of a child. Around 12% of support cases involve someone who is considered high risk or vulnerable.
Ross Moorlock, chief executive at Brake, said: “Road victims have been the forgotten and neglected victims for far too long and that has to change.
“Our families have told us what they want and what they need – and that includes recognition of the trauma of sudden road death and injury, parity with other victim groups, sentencing to fit the crime and lessons learned to prevent future road death and injury.
“Until we achieve a world where no one is killed or harmed on a road, we will continue to do everything we can to ensure that everyone affected by road death and injury receives the respect, support and justice they deserve.”
Brake has also published the results of a public opinion survey carried out in April 2024, revealing that 79% of people surveyed agree or strongly agree that families bereaved or seriously injured from a road crash should be able to access the same level of support as homicide victims. A further 74% agree that they should be able to access the same level of support as victims of terrorism.
Road Safety Week 2024 began on Sunday 17 November to mark the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims and runs until 23 November.
More than 3,500 educators, employers, emergency services and others have signed up to take part in Road Safety Week 2024, together representing more than four million people. Brake has provided free resources that include lesson plans for schools, social media images, films, posters and a webinar for employers, which are online here.
Brake is also running a free Road Safety Week webinar to cover post-crash investigation for fleets.
Taking place on Wednesday 20 November, the webinar explores the theme of, ‘If one of your employees was involved in a serious crash, would you know what to do?’ and will look at the importance of post-crash investigation to prevent future harm, and why support for road victims is so important. More details of the webinar are here.
