Making Britain's Roads the Safest in the World

22 April 2009

RoadSafe welcomes the visionary approach that Government is taking in its approach to reducing casualties on Britain’s roads. Wide-ranging proposals to dramatically cut the number of deaths on the roads are set out in the consultation on the road safety strategy for 2010-2020 A Safer Way - Consultation on Making Britain's Roads the Safest in the World.

The consultation proposals include:

• New guidance to ensure all roads have the right speed limit.
• The formation of a new independent expert panel to identify issues and trends from fatal accidents and provide an annual report on road safety to Ministers and Parliament.
• New targets to cut road deaths by one-third by 2020, to halve the number of child deaths and serious injuries on the roads and to halve the rate of road death and serious injury to pedestrians and cyclists per kilometre travelled.

Other measures include a new road safety qualification will offer young people a partial credit towards their car theory test while the learning process and theory and practical tests will all be improved. Van drivers also will be given the chance to enhance the skills they need for their work through a new qualification.

RoadSafe particularly welcomes: the approach to encouraging new technology both in-vehicle and on the roads.

We also welcome the new investment in the creation of knowledge, and to sharing it with those who need to know.

DFT has also issued a Toolkit to assist organisations in effectively communicating information about the consultation to a wide spectrum of potential respondents from the general public through to road safety specialists. We urge all RoadSafe members to respond.