The Government is working on the UK’s first road safety strategy in this country for over a decade, the Transport Secretary has said.
Speaking to MPs on the Transport Committee, Louise Haigh said road casualties had been “normalised for too long” and announced that the Department for Transport had started the process to set a road safety strategy in place, building on its manifesto commitment.
“We’re looking really carefully and taking evidence from other countries where they have Vision Zero to see what’s worked and adopt a whole system approach, because this can’t just be a Department for Transport-owned policy.
“It needs to be across government, whether it be in education or the criminal justice system, to look at the most effective measures.”
Haigh said the Government would focus on measures found to be most effective.
“I really think one death on our roads is too many,” she added. “I think we treat road safety in a way, as if it is somehow a natural accident.
“I think if the numbers of people being killed or seriously injured our roads were happening in any other way, we’d be treating it as a pandemic – we have normalised it for too long.”
Latest Department for Transport figures show there were 1,624 fatalities on roads in Britain in 2023; a decline of 5% compared to 2022. The number of killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties stood at 29,711; little change from the figure of 29,742 in the 2022 report. Across all severities, there were 132,977 casualties; a decline of 2%.
The data also showed that 75% of fatalities and 61% of casualties of all severities were male.
Haigh also said the Government is considering setting up the country’s first-ever Road Safety Investigation Branch (RSIB).
“That is one of the measures that is being considered as part of the road safety strategy,” she said.
The previous government announced two years ago that it was launching a Road Safety Investigation Branch to make independent safety recommendations and shape future road safety policy. It had planned to legislate for the RSIB in a forthcoming Transport Bill. Former Roads Minister Baroness Vere said the specialised unit would investigate themes in the causes of collisions, as well as specific incidents of concern, to learn valuable road safety lessons.
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.
Road Safety Week 2024 takes place from 17 to 23 November. This year’s theme is ‘After the Crash – Every road victim counts’. The charity has chosen to put road victims at the heart of this year’s campaign in a move to raise awareness of the devastating toll of road crashes and celebrate the work of the people who support families after a road death or serious injury.
More than 3,300 organisations and individuals have already signed up to take part in Road Safety Week and Brake has provided free resources for employers and fleet organisations, which are online here.
