Safety upgrades during maintenance help cut deaths and serious injuries

Road Safety Foundation

Authorities scheduling low cost safety improvements alongside routine maintenance have helped reduce fatal and serious crashes by 80% on 15 stretches of UK roads according to this year’s Road Safety Foundation report: How Safe are You on Britain’s Roads? Published and launched at a briefing in the House of Lords.

The savings in death and serious injury from simple low cost safety improvements dominate the reductions on the 15 most improved roads and are worth a staggering £0.4bn to the economy.

The report complements a further publication, Making Road Safety Pay, which makes seven key recommendations for the Government to adopt in a bid to achieve zero road deaths.

How Safe are You on Britain’s Roads? also highlights:

• 64 people a day killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads
• 79% of motorway – but three percent of single carriageway travel - is on “low risk” roads
• Risk to road users is seven times greater on single carriageway A roads than motorways
• Motorways have seen 20% cut in fatal and serious crashes
• Running off the road accounts for a quarter of all deaths
• Junction crashes are the most common crash leading to serious injury
• UK’s persistently highest-risk road is a 12 mile stretch of the A285 in West Sussex
• Risk of death and serious injury on motorways and A roads is lowest in the West Midlands and highest in the East Midlands
• Motorcyclists account for one percent of traffic but 21% of fatal crashes
• Government should set a national goal of all A roads achieving a minimum three-star safety threshold and four-star and five-star ratings for busiest A roads and motorways