Increase in road deaths should be ‘wake-up call’

One thing we need to stop doing is calling them 'accidents' because very few are and even the police made that decision years ago.

Road safety is a complex and very unscientific problem. I spent two years standing at the roadside while victims were cut from wrecks and a further four years studying the cause of KSIs (killed and serious injury crashes).

Where I used to live they introduced fixed speed cameras and cut dedicated roads policing by 80%. Road deaths then increased by over 60% to highest level for nearly 10 years. At the same time the speed camera people claimed a 43% reduction in road casualties. In fact using the police STATS19 records it was easily determined that the speed cameras were a complete waste of space and some were actually increasing road casualties.

In one of the major cities they went mad introducing fixed speed cameras and guess what? Road deaths increased. So they pulled the cameras then introduced traffic calming measure and 20mph limits that were unenforceable. God only knows what they are trying now because I've moved out of that area.

The problem with 'road safety' is it's become a convenient bandwagon. People actually make money out of becoming road safety 'experts' without really understanding the nuts and bolts of the matter or caring about the consequences of their ignorance. From DfT to ACPO and charities like BRAKE, RoSPA or whatever you just hear a bunch of mindless waffle from people who have no idea what they are talking about and are always happy to blame someone else when their master plan to make the roads safer just gets even more people killed.

Where I live now it's very rural, no motorways and a lot of decidedly unimproved 'A' roads. The main cause of death on the roads round here is dumb overtaking. Mums late to pick the kids up on the school run, van drivers late to get back from a job, you name it they'll try to kill themselves doing it.

And it's not kids round here, they can't afford cars.

The worst drivers are in the mid-30s to early-40s on the road as part of their work, on the school run or commuting - closely followed by people in my age group (the over-60s) who think they own the roads. I've followed elderly drivers who wander between 25mph and 45mph in a safe 60mph zone then cut you up (and they will try to put you in a ditch!) when you dare to overtake them. 

The way to reduce this (and by doing so cut injuries and fatalities on the roads) is, as any traffic officer or former traffic officer will tell you, robust and very visible policing backed up by the courts. When I was in my teens/20s there was no points system and getting stopped for excessive speed or careless driving earned you at least a 28-day driving ban imposed by magistrates whose response to, "I need my car/licence for work," was, "Well you should have thought about that before you broke the law."

You'll never completely eliminate road casualties but old-fashioned, tough, hands on, roads policing might be a start.