Government To Announce New Road Safety Strategy

The government has pledged to announce the first road safety strategy in more than 10 years.

It comes as pressure grows on the Department for Transport with road safety campaigners and experts calling for a joined-up strategy to tackle the number of incidents, injuries and deaths on the road.

As the roads reach their busiest levels in years, the feeling is that more needs to be done to reduce road deaths and incidents in general.

Busier Roads, Sharper Safety Focus?

While the pandemic years skewed figures as people worked from home or were furloughed (or other), the impact on the figures since is that there has been a sharp increase in road users.

That, coupled with more people taking more journeys on average, and a concern over a decline in driving standards on the roads has left many road users worried about the future of road safety.

The challenges that the government, police and local authorities have in managing the roads today is vastly different to what it was even a decade ago.

With mobile phone usage increasing, even if hands-free and legal, it becomes a challenge to monitor and manage any offences. On top of that, the introduction of all-lane-running smart motorways also has an impact on road safety, with more considerations to be made.

The introduction of any new smart motorways is on hold due to concerns around the safety of them, particularly with relation to the frequency of refuge zones and worries about stop detection cameras and technology not working as effectively as it should.

As a result, the Transport Secretary has started the process to introduce the first road safety strategy for more than a decade in the UK.

Road Safety Investigation Branch

 One thing that’s on the agenda for a road safety strategy is to ensure that there’s a joined-up process for road traffic incident investigations.

The responsibility falls to local police forces and local authorities depending on where the incident occurs, while some campaigners are hoping that a Road Safety Investigation Branch would deliver one single strategy for the whole of the UK.

It would be modelled on similar bodies in the aviation, rail and maritime sectors, with the independent body able to make recommendations to the government and other organisations to help shape the future of the UK’s road safety strategy.

The RSIB would bridge the gap between data held locally across various local authorities and build a picture across the UK’s roads, including motorways, A-roads, B-roads and significant routes.

The creation of a national investigations branch was one of the key outcomes of the Roads Policing Review which highlighted a lack of national oversight on road safety as a significant issue that needed to be addressed.

Do you think more needs to be done to address road safety nationally? And do you think a Road Safety Strategy and Investigation Branch would be sufficient? Let us know in the comments below…