WIREDGOV

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has welcomed a report about road safety, published recently by the Transport Committee.

Kevin Clinton, head of road safety at RoSPA, said: “RoSPA welcomes the Transport Committee’s report, which is timely because of the recently announced increase in road deaths.

“What the increase in road deaths and this report highlight is the need to review what is happening on road safety in this country, including what effects spending cuts and service reorganisation are having and how successful the Strategic Framework for Road Safety is being.

“Although we are still in the early days of the framework, we are pleased to see that the Government is going to review it this year. It is important to identify whether the road safety strategy can be improved because, as the economy picks up in the coming years, road use will increase and we do not want to find ourselves in a situation in which road deaths and injuries are rising as a result. We therefore need to prepare for economic improvements, as well as more people cycling and more young drivers coming back on to the roads. These are among the factors that may put an upwards pressure on road casualty figures and now is the time to review what is happening and what can be done.”

More information about today’s report can be found on the Transport Committee’s website.

Last month, RoSPA, a safety charity that has been at the heart of accident prevention in the UK and around the world for 95 years, urged greater focus on road safety following the publication of annual casualty figures which showed the first increase in road deaths since 2003. The figures for 2011 for Great Britain, published by the Department for Transport, showed that road deaths rose by three per cent from 1,850 in 2010 to 1,901 in 2011.