Reducing risk makes it hard to cut road casualty numbers

10 June 2009

The UK is ‘nowhere near’ the position in which the number of road casualties have been reduced to an acceptable level, according to the road safety minister.

Speaking in a parliamentary debate, Jim Fitzpatrick conceded it had become harder to improve on recent road safety progress ‘because, as we reduce the element of risk, we reduce the space in which improvement can be made’.

Mr Fitzpatrick was responding to a question from Mark Field, Conservative MP for the City of London and Westminster. Field asked whether he had ‘a figure in mind for an acceptable number of deaths’, given a balance must be struck ‘between what is obviously a risky undertaking and ensuring there is relatively swift movement on the roads’.

The minister reiterated the Government’s intention for local authorities to establish 20mph zones in residential streets, but insisted ‘they will not be major through-routes that happen to have a few houses on them, but streets with the primary purpose of allowing access to our homes’.

He also stressed that local authorities would be urged to reduce speed limits on rural single carriageways ‘on a targeted basis’.

The Government has launched a consultation on a new road safety strategy (Surveyor, 23 April 2009).

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