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Government urged to do more as road deaths increase

Date: 29 September 2017   |   Author: Daniel Puddicombe

Breakdown and road safety organization Gem Motoring Assist has warned that more needs to be done to reduce road casualties.

Its message to the UK Government comes as figures released by the Department for Transport (DfT) show that 1,792 people were killed in accidents last year.

According to the DfT, this number represents a rise of 62, or 4%, on the previous year's figures and is the highest total since 2011.

"We will no doubt hear a minister explaining that Britain has some of the safest roads in the world, but the truth is that our roads are considerably less safe than they were six years ago, and that is very worrying," said Gem road safety officer Neil Worth. "In spite of technological improvements to vehicles and systems, car occupant deaths have risen by 8%. And even though pedestrian protection systems are more advanced than ever, pedestrian deaths are up by 10%. Deaths on roads with 20mph speed limits more than doubled from 14 in 2015 to 30 in 2016."

He added: "We urge the government to accept that these figures are deeply troubling. With support from the highest levels of government, we know that far more lives could be saved. So let's waste no time in investigating thoroughly why each death has occurred. Let's also accept that we can do so much more to protect new drivers. For that to happen, we need to be willing to learn from countries who have successfully implemented graduated driver licensing schemes."

The RAC backed this view, too: "The report clearly states that 'there is unlikely to be as large falls in casualties as there were earlier on without further significant interventions.' This is surely an admission that more could, and should, be done to save lives," the organisation's road safety spokesman, Pete Williams, said. "Simply because there is more traffic on our roads does not mean that we should accept that road deaths will inevitably go up. Significant progress was made in reducing road deaths between 2006 and 2010, but since then figures have at first plateaued, and are now rising."



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