The latest EuroRAP results (EuroRAP 2008: GB Tracking Survey Results) provide a valuable tool for road safety professionals by highlighting the safety deficiencies of many of Britain’s main roads. They also confirm studies by the IAM Motoring Trust that show Britain's rural roads to be the biggest killers, and that more than half of deaths and serious injuries happen on single carriageway, relatively minor roads.
“For too many young drivers and their passengers, rural roads are killers for which their driving tuition and driving tests may not have prepared them,” says IAM Trust Director, Neil Greig
“The IAM Trust study, Rural Roads – the biggest killer, shows that:
More than 60 per cent of fatal and serious casualties happen on 60 and 70mph non- motorway speed limit roads
Two-thirds of England's road deaths are on rural roads, and three quarters of those in Scotland and Wales
A third of KSIs (killed and seriously injured) on rural roads are in cars driven by young drivers, twice as many as in cars with a driver over 60
Young drivers have almost half of their KSI crashes in the evening/overnight on rural roads, compared to a third for drivers in the 26-39 age group
Males drivers dominate the rural roads KSI statistics – three quarters of car occupants killed or seriously injures on rural roads are in cars driven by male drivers; 95 per cent of motorcyclist KSIs are male, as are over 80 per cent of cyclists
The most deadly roads are single carriageways – accounting for more than 80 per cent of rural road KSIs in England, and 90 per cent in Scotland and Wales
Running off the road and hitting solid objects. such as a tree, or running into a ditch, account for 40 per cent of KSIs on rural roads
“Deaths on our roads have fallen below 3000, now we must lower the target to fewer than 2000. Achieving a new lower target needs a greater focus on EuroRAP’s message that we must make roads safer, and more forgiving, when crashes happen. Only when we have five-star drivers in five-star cars, driving on five-star roads will British motorists have the road system they deserve,” says Greig.
ENDS
Media Contacts
IAM Motoring Trust Media Relations – 020 8996 9777
Neil Greig, Director IAM Trust – 020 8996 9772 neil.greig@iamtrust.org.uk
ISDN broadcast lines available
Notes to editors:
Links
IAM Motoring Trust Rural Roads - the biggest killer
EuroRAP, Road Safety Foundation EuroRAP 2008: GB Tracking Survey Results
The IAM Motoring Trust is the policy and advocacy arm of the IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists)
