Learning From Road Fatalities to Save Lives

4 December 2024

PACTS has published a new report which highlights significant gaps in how the UK handles learning from road traffic fatalities and calls for systemic changes to address these issues. Unlike other transport sectors, road deaths in the UK lack a central investigation body dedicated to learning from each fatal incident, limiting the ability to prevent similar tragedies in future. it points out that:

• Every day, road traffic fatalities claim lives across the UK, yet the systems meant to investigate these incidents often fall short.
• Just 3% of road deaths result in prevention of future deaths (PFD) reports from coroners.
• There is no formal follow-up to reports: local authorities face no sanctions for failing to act on recommendations, leaving critical safety concerns unresolved.
• Unlike other transport sectors, road fatalities lack a central body for analysing trends and identifying at-risk groups.
• Poor collaboration among stakeholders delays safety improvements across organisations.
• Failing to learn from and act on any such tragedy creates an open wound for the families involved and puts others at risk of the same fate.

To bridge these gaps, PACTS has put forward a series of recommendations aimed at improving how fatalities are investigated, documented, and acted upon by relevant authorities.

PACTS gratefully acknowledges the financial support for this project provided by The Safer Roads Foundation, and the contributions of the authors, Nick Reed and Jeremy Phillips. 

The report can be downloaded here.