RoSPA: DfT's road safety proposals

Kevin Clinton, head of road safety at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: “This is a crucial time for road safety and we are delighted that there is going to be another strategy to take us beyond 2010.

“These targets are ambitious and they show a genuine commitment to reducing deaths and injuries on our roads even further.

“Although tremendous progress has been made in reducing road casualties in recent years, on average eight people are still killed on Britain’s roads every day. That is why it is so important to look for new ways to prevent road accidents and to roll out more widely current approaches which have been proven to be successful.

“As casualty figures become lower, the harder it is to reduce them further, and that is why the ambitious targets in the strategy consultation are a real sign of the Government’s commitment to road safety.

“This is Britain’s third road safety strategy since 1987 and deaths and serious injuries have fallen greatly since then. In the mid-1980s, there were around 5,500 road deaths each year and that figure has now dropped to just under 3,000. This demonstrates that if you take the kind of strategic approach that Britain has now had for decades, you can be very successful.”