RoSPA Press Office : Press Release

May 8, 2009
RoSPA WELCOMES FOCUS ON THE SAFETY OF VULNERABLE ROAD USERS

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has welcomed a focus on vulnerable road users in a report published today by the National Audit Office.

The report – entitled “Improving road safety for pedestrians and cyclists in Great Britain” – highlights a fall in the number of deaths among pedestrians and cyclists since the mid-1990s but says more needs to be done to improve their safety.

Duncan Vernon, road safety manager for England at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), said: “We welcome the attention that this report places on some of the most vulnerable users of our roads – cyclists and pedestrians. A key challenge is how to encourage more people to walk and cycle, which is something we want to see, without that leading to an increase in road casualties.

“Although tremendous progress has been made in reducing overall road casualties in recent years, we know that some groups of road users have fared better than others. And, on average eight people are still killed on Britain’s roads every day.

“It is important that we do not become complacent about road safety and we need to look for new ways to prevent road accidents. We also need to roll out more widely current approaches (whether based on education, enforcement or engineering) which, through analysis and evaluation, have been proven to be successful.

“For example, the evidence shows that deaths and serious injuries are significantly reduced when 30mph zones are changed to 20mph zones. Therefore, in areas where children are present, there is a strong case for reducing the limit.

“The report highlights that child pedestrians are most at risk from 3pm until 7pm, especially during the weeks after the end of British Summer Time. RoSPA has been campaigning on this issue for decades and will continue to call for a system which would bring lighter evenings all year round.

“RoSPA also supports the report’s recommendations about the way casualty reduction targets are set, agreeing that separating fatalities from serious injuries and having a specific target for cyclists and pedestrians would be of value.

“This report comes during a crucial period for road safety as the Department for Transport is currently seeking views on a future casualty reduction strategy. Several of the recommendations in the National Audit Office report are also proposed in the DfT’s recently-published consultation.”

In 2007, 646 pedestrians and 136 cyclists were killed and around 30,000 pedestrians and 16,000 cyclists were injured on Britain’s roads.

See www.rospa.com/roadsafety/ for road safety advice and information from RoSPA.