Road Safety Support Response to the UK Department for Transport Road Safety Strategy
We strongly welcome the Government’s first Road Safety Strategy in over a decade and its clear commitment to reducing deaths and serious injuries on Britain's roads by 65% by 2035, alongside the introduction of 17 Safety Performance Indicators. After years of stalled progress, this strategy represents a necessary and overdue paradigm shift toward a Safe System approach that recognises human error is inevitable, but death and serious injury are not.
As an organisation working at the forefront of road safety strategy, enforcement and safety camera technology, we are particularly encouraged by the strategy’s renewed emphasis on targeted enforcement action.
The inclusion of targeted action on speeding, drink and drug driving, illegal number plates, uninsured vehicles and non-compliance with vehicle standards reflects the evidence-based approach long advocated for in the Road Safety Support 'Raising the Game' strategy document. Enforcement is most effective when it is intelligence-led and it remains one of the most effective tools for reducing risky behaviour and preventing repeat offending.
We strongly support the strategy’s focus on committing to review the 1988 Road Traffic Act and 1988 Road Traffic Offenders Act, as well as a determination to tackling illegal and ‘ghost’ number plates, which undermines the integrity of camera enforcement and allows high-risk drivers to evade detection. Investment in advanced detection systems, supported by specialist legal and technological expertise and capability, is essential to ensuring enforcement keeps pace with increasingly sophisticated criminal methods. Closing this enforcement gap will directly improve compliance, fairness and public trust.
The strategy’s proposals on lowering the drink drive limit, consulting on a lower drink drive limit for novice drivers and use of alcohol interlocks and strengthening roadside powers align closely with the principle that enforcement must be preventative as well as punitive. Technology that can stop repeat offending, which will ultimately save lives, is one of the most powerful safety interventions we can utilise.
We also welcome the creation of a Road Safety Investigation Branch and the commitment to strengthen, and link, police and health data. Data-led intelligence and collision analysis are critical to targeting resources where they will have the greatest impact and will also help us to learn, with the aim of preventing future needless death and injury.
The strategy’s focus on young drivers and eyesight testing for motorists over 70 is a proportionate and evidence-led response to well-established risk factors. Inexperience in young drivers and declining visual capability in older drivers are known contributors to serious collisions, yet until now have not been addressed consistently at a national level. Introducing a minimum learning period for young drivers recognises that safe driving skills are developed over time and through experiencing of a range of conditions and live traffic environments, not simply through passing a test, while mandatory eyesight checks for older drivers strikes an important balance between maintaining independence and protecting public safety. Although one, could argue that eyesight tests should be mandatory for all road users. However, the inclusion in the strategy of options for the development of cognitive testing for all road users is also encouraging. Crucially though, these measures reflect the Safe System principle that road safety should not rely solely on individual self-assessment, but on systems that identify risk early and intervene before any lives are lost. Done sensitively and fairly, these reforms have the potential to prevent future tragedies while reinforcing public confidence that difficult but necessary action is being taken to protect all road users.
To deliver the full potential of this strategy, it will be vital that police and road safety organisations are given long term funding certainty, clear national standards and governance, and strong partnerships between all stakeholders are realised.
Road safety is not achieved through education, engineering, enforcement, improvements in technology or post-crash care alone. It is delivered when all aspects work together, in tandem, as part of a coherent system. This strategy provides the framework to “raise the game” nationally and restore the UK’s position as a global leader in road safety.
We stand ready to support the Government, police forces, road safety partnerships and partners in translating this ambition into measurable, life-saving outcomes, ensuring that enforcement and enforcement technology are fully harnessed to protect all road users and ensure every journey ends safely.
Trevor Hall, Managing Director of Road Safety Support said, “After a decade of stalled progress, this strategy marks a vital turning point for road safety in Britain. The commitment to ambitious targets, a Safe System approach and stronger enforcement recognises what the evidence has long shown – that deaths and serious injuries are preventable when technology, data and accountability are used effectively.
“We particularly welcome the focus on tackling illegal and ‘ghost’ number plates, drink and drug driving, and non-compliance that undermines the fairness and effectiveness of enforcement. Road policing enforcement and safety cameras supported by strong communications, are one of the tools in the road safety intervention toolbox which are known to work.
“To deliver the scale of change needed, enforcement must be properly resourced, intelligence-led and nationally consistent. We are committed to working with the Government and partners to help raise the game on road safety enforcement and ensure this strategy delivers safer roads for everyone.”
