On track to cut road casualties

 
Highway authorities are on track to beat national targets for cutting road casualties, without taking any new measures, according to latest research.
In a more positive assessment than last year, TRL has concluded that all the Government’s 2010 road safety targets should be achieved, including a 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads.
Only last autumn, TRL was warning that extra measures would be needed to engineer an additional cut of up to 5% in the KSI toll (Surveyor, 8 September 2005).
However, the good news, which contrasts with the poor performance against other targets since jettisoned from the 10-year transport plan, is tempered by the underlying trend on fatal accidents.
Major new measures would be needed to combat the stubbornly high death toll, warned TRL. If its slower decline continued, the total number of road deaths would be only 18% below the 1994-98 baseline. Although not a specific target, fatalities would need to fall by one-quarter to achieve a 40% reduction – still short of the EU goal of a 50% reduction by 2010.
Analysis of car accident data suggests that declining standards of driving, including drink-driving, are a factor, since ‘loss of control’ accidents at bends or cars leaving the carriageway have risen significantly since 1999.
A reduction in deaths in 2004 owed most to a reversal in the lethal trend for motorcyclists. But researchers put this down to a drop in ‘sports’ motorcycling compared with the fine summer of 2003.
Nevertheless, a greater-than-expected fall in the number of car occupant and pedestrian casualties in 2003 and 2004 might show ‘new road safety measures beginning to work’. TRL forecasts a 59% fall in child KSIs by 2010 – comfortably ahead of the 50% target. Child deaths would drop by 62% on present trends.
The 10% reduction in the slight casualty rate – number of people slightly injured per 100M vehicle-kilometres – was achieved in 2002, but under-reporting could be contributing.
Good progress was also made in 2004 on the Department for Transport’s additional target of reducing casualties more quickly in 88 deprived local authority areas.

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