Figures Indicate Government Is Failing On Road Safety

Although the Government has a history of talking tough on road safety, it has recently received criticism after figures released showing a 1.9% increase in the number of people killed or seriously injured on the United Kingdom’s roads.

As we reached March 2016, 1,780 people were killed with a further 22,830 seriously injured.  The total casualty figure in the previous 12 months was 22,404.

Experts have said that one in three road casualties are work-related, which equates to approximately 11 at-work drivers being killed each week. Significant reductions in road casualties had been occurring year-on-year before 2011, but during the past five years that downward trend has deteriorated.

Fleet News published the following comments from David Davies, executive director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS):

“The Government is failing in its manifesto commitment to reduce the number of road users killed or seriously injured.  We need to see stronger action on a range of fronts, particularly drink-driving, which accounts for 13% of all deaths.”

Looking at incident rates, according to road type during the year ending March 2016, crashes involving fatalities on motorways and A roads increased by 3% from 1,014 to 1,040. Fatal accidents on minor roads fell by 2%, from 644 to 630 over the same period.

The numbers will concern business owners and fleet managers alike. We recently covered the drastic costs that can be incurred by a company vehicle being involved in an accident in this article.

But what can be done to ensure that a business, staff and other road users are protected?

Given that the statistics above reference accidents involving driving for work purposes, it is apparent that those who manage fleets need to do what they can to ensure vehicles are being driven correctly. If your company has a policy that expects your driver to behave in a certain way whilst out on public roads, how can you know that policy is being adhered to?

In the free downloadable document below, we’ve highlighted how important data on driver behaviour can be, and how you can identify situations where the risk of accidents are heightened, and therefore try to eradicate them before they materialise.