Road safety is a matter of paramount importance to all road users, including car users. The Forum is very supportive of Government action in this key area and is keen to work with Government in helping it to meet its new casualty reduction target for 2010.
The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions has consulted the Forum on its new road safety strategy. We are pleased to endorse the strategy that the Department proposes to tackle this matter. It contains many initiatives that we are sure will help to reduce the number of people who are killed or injured on our roads each year. And we particularly welcome the setting of the very demanding targets that the Government has pledged itself to achieve in this area.
However, we are disappointed that in some ways the paper does not go far enough in attempting to tackle difficult issues. Our view is that the responsible motorist welcomes greater emphasis being placed on tackling anti-social and dangerous driving. Recent research has shown that the motoring public backs tougher penalties for both driving at excessive speed and driving whilst under the influence of drink and drugs.
There are four matters of particular importance that the Forum believes need further action:
- Company car drivers. We were particularly concerned to note that research has shown that company car drivers are more prone to fall asleep at the wheel and are more likely to be involved in accidents than private car drivers. We consider that companies' driving policies have a key role to play here and we are keen to work with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in this field.
- Children. It is disappointing to note the UK's relatively poor record on child pedestrian safety in relation to other EU countries, especially given that the UK has one of the best road safety records overall. Children are more likely to have accidents if they go out without adults before they have good road sense. They are also more prone to taking risks. Better education of children in road safety therefore has a key part to play in reducing accident levels. We are pleased to note that road safety is now to be included in the National Curriculum. But we should still like the appropriate authorities to give further consideration to the steps that could be taken to expand the teaching of road safety.
- Enforcement. We believe that effective enforcement of road safety measures will play a key role in any strategy and must be given greater priority. We support the installation of cameras at sites that have a bad road safety record. Properly targeted cameras can be effective in reducing accidents at such sites. However, we do not consider that the greater use of camera enforcement can in itself tackle dangerous driving.
Our view is that the police, despite the many competing demands on their time, must give greater priority to the enforcement of traffic crime legislation. We recommend that additional resources should be allocated to the police for this purpose. In addition, we recommend that the police should establish a priority objective relating to traffic crime and that the Home Office should give more priority within their guidelines to the need for greater enforcement of traffic crime legislation.
- Increased penalties. We are strongly of the opinion that increased penalties could play a major part in tackling anti-social and dangerous driving. Indeed, research shows that the general public support higher penalties for people who commit major and irresponsible traffic offences. We recommend that punishments for such offences should be reviewed as soon as possible with a view to the imposition of increased penalties. And these higher penalties should be reflected in the sentencing guidelines of the courts.
