Plans to improve
road safety education while taking tough action against the small
minority of dangerous drivers were set out by Transport Secretary
Philip Hammond today.
Careless driving will be made a fixed penalty offence to allow
the police more effectively to tackle reckless driving that puts
other road users in danger, while disqualified drivers face having
to take a new test before regaining their licence.
There will also be more educational courses that can be offered
in place of a fixed penalty and points in appropriate cases as
well as a new post-test qualification for novice drivers, under
plans set out in the new Strategic Framework for Road Safety.
And as new analysis shows, 3,500 deaths and serious injuries
could have been prevented in a year if the successes of better
local authorities and police forces had been matched across the
country. Local people will be given the information they need to
have a real say in road safety priorities on their local roads.
Philip Hammond said:
"This report marks a sea change in how we tackle road
safety in this country. We are determined to differentiate between
wilfully reckless drivers and the law abiding majority who
sometimes make honest mistakes, or who have allowed their skills
to deteriorate.
"We will focus relentlessly on cracking down on the
really reckless few who are responsible for a disproportionately
large number of accidents and deaths on our roads. By allowing the
police to focus resources on dealing with these drivers, we can
make our roads even safer.
"Our vision is to ensure Britain remains a world leader
on road safety. We will only do this is if we bring people with
us. This means cracking down on the most dangerous drivers without
waging war on the law abiding majority.
The new Strategic Framework for Road Safety sets out the
Government’s plans to:
Make careless driving a fixed penalty offence to allow the
police more effectively to tackle the wilfully reckless driving
that puts other road users in danger. Guidance will ensure that
that the circumstances in which a fixed penalty notice is
appropriate are clearly defined.Require offenders to pass a test
before they regain their licence after a serious
disqualification.Make greater use of powers to seize vehicles to
keep the most dangerous drivers off the roads.Increase the level
of fixed penalty notices for traffic offences from £60 to between
£80 and £100 and penalty points. Levels have fallen behind those
for other fixed penalty offences, which risks trivialising the
offences.Improve enforcement against drink and drug driving, as
announced in the response to the North Report in March.Increase
the use of police-approved educational courses that can be offered
in place of fixed penalty notices to encourage safer driving
behaviour. Launch a new post-test qualification for new drivers,
including an assessment process to give insurers confidence that
it will create safer drivers who can expect to pay lower insurance
costs. This will replace the current Pass Plus scheme.Continue to
improve the driving and motorcycling training processes, including
introducing film clips into theory test.Create a new website to
allow local people to easily compare the road safety performance
of their local area against similar areas, as well as a new portal
to help road safety professionals share information. The framework
published today also includes maps which show the recent road
safety records and improvements of local authorities.Launch an
annual road safety day.
The framework also sets out the roles and responsibilities of
local authorities, road safety professionals and other
stakeholders in improving road safety and the increased freedom
that is being given to local authorities in assessing and acting
on their own priorities.
The Government’s long term vision is to ensure that Britain
remains a world leader on road safety and the Department will
monitor its performance against indicators in a new road safety
outcomes framework.
Notes to Editors
1. The Strategic Framework for Road Safety is published here:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/strategicframework/ 2. The
Government’s response to the North Report, covering what steps
will be taken to tackle drink and drug driving, was published in
March. It is available here:
www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/drivinglaws/ 3. Maps showing the
road safety performance of individual local authorities are
included on p27-28 of the Strategic Framework. These are based on
figures published in Reported Road Casualties Great Britain, which
is published here:
www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/accidents/casualtiesgbar/
Detailed local authority data is published here:
www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/accidents/casualtieslatables/
4. New analysis of these figures, included in the strategy, shows
that if lower-performing local authorities were to increase their
road safety performance so that their killed or serious injured
(KSI) casualty rate per billion vehicle miles for 2007-09 was no
higher than for the median (mid point) local authority, we might
have expected the number of KSIs to be 14 per cent lower than
observed – or around 3,500 fewer KSI casualties per year. 5. The
Department for Transport has also today published summaries of the
responses to two consultations – the Road Safety Compliance
Consultation and A Safer Way – here:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/archive/2009/roadsafetyconsultation/
http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/archive/2009/compliance/ 6.
The UN has proclaimed 2011-2020 as the Decade of Action for Road
Safety with a goal of stabilising and then reducing global road
deaths. The launch of the road safety framework has been scheduled
to coincide with the launch of this decade of action. The UK is a
world leader in road safety and the framework demonstrates our
commitment to contribute to the further reduction in road deaths
envisaged globally by the UN.
Contacts:
DfT Press Office - Roads
Phone: DfT Press Office 020 7944 3066
nds.dft@coi.gsi.gov.uk