Government stands accused of failing a manifesto commitment to reduce the number of road users killed and seriously injured each year. Latest casualty figures show there were 1780 road deaths in Great Britain in the year to March, which is unchanged from 12 months earlier.
But looking at the first quarter of 2016 there was a 14% increase in the number of people killed and seriously injured in road accidents (5890) compared with the same period the previous year. And the number of people killed in the early months of each year increased by 13%, from 380 to 430.
Fatalities and serious casualties among car occupants increased by 5% in the year to March compared to the previous 12 months, increased by 2% for pedestrians and reduced by 3% for cyclists.
However the first quarter of 2016 saw a 23% increase in the number of car occupants killed or seriously injured compared to the early months of 2015. Serious incidents involving pedestrians rose by 11% and for cyclists went up by 8%.
Fatal or serious accidents on major roads increased by 10% and on minor roads increased by 17% when comparing the first quarters of this and last year.
Road safety charity IAM RoadSmart’s head of technical policy Tim Shallcross said: “Road deaths are a serious issue; 35 people a week die in crashes throughout the country. In any other sphere that would provoke national outrage, rule the headlines for months and provoke urgent Government action.”
Labour’s Shadow Transport Minister Daniel Zeichner MP said: “These figures underline the need for the Government to pay greater attention to road safety. We need a concerted attempt to reduce road accidents across the country. The Government has passed the responsibility for road safety to local councils but denied them the resources to do the job.”
The ‘Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain’ document makes the point that three police forces did not provide data for the first quarter of 2016. In particular no data for March was received from the Metropolitan Police and only partial data was available for Greater Manchester; two forces which account for a large share of road casualties.
Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety executive director David Davies said: “A separate issue that is becoming increasingly evident is the vulnerability of the entire casualty reporting system due to lack of prioritisation by some police forces. The Home Office needs to make clear that accurate and timely reporting is essential.”
Roads Minister Andrew Jones insisted that Britain has some of the safest roads in the world and added: “We have tightened the laws on drug driving and are looking at increasing penalties for tackling mobile phone use at the wheel.”
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