Concerns over Child and Cyclist Safety

11 May 2009

A report issued on 8 May by the National Audit Office highlights the overall fall in the number of deaths among both pedestrians and cyclists since the mid-1990s despite a worrying recent rise of 11 per cent rise cyclist casualties.

The number of deaths among pedestrians has fallen by 36 per cent but Great Britain but is some way behind some of the better performing nations, particularly for child pedestrians. The number of cyclists killed or seriously injured fell from 2000 to 2004, but rose again between 2004 to 2007, despite the amount of cycling staying broadly constant.

Reactions to the announcement from RoadSafe members include one from the Freight Transport Association (FTA) which says that road safety awareness needs to improve before the trend in cycling casualties can be reversed. FTA has developed initiatives to help this happen.

Road Safety GB – that represents local government road safety teams urges government to work more closely with organisations representing groups most at risk.

The report found the UK was the fifth safest globally on the number of road deaths - but 11th worst out of 24 developed nations on pedestrian deaths, and 17th on child pedestrian deaths.

The full NAO report can be found here.