The IAM is calling for road casualty targets to be reintroduced in its contribution to November’s transport select committee’s inquiry into the government’s road safety strategy.  Targets were removed by the government in May this year.
 
Despite positive reductions in the number of people killed in road accidents in 2010, over the last six months deaths on Britain’s roads have increased by seven per cent compared to the same period last year* (casualties in total have gone down by three per cent).
 
IAM chairman Alistair Cheyne OBE, writing in the IAM members’ magazine Advanced Driving, said: “That road deaths have gone up is a tragedy. Emergency services do a fantastic job and manufacturers are making cars safer all the time.
 
“But crashes are best avoided and all drivers need to think about how to make their driving style safer. The government must play a part by reintroducing targets on road safety to give the entire industry a goal to aim for."
 
An IAM poll in September showed that only a quarter of the 2700 respondents think that the numbers of killed and seriously injured will continue to fall. Twenty-five per cent think they will keep going down. Thirty-four per cent think they will remain the same, and 36 per cent of respondents think that casualty rates will rise a little over the next three years.

www.iam.org.uk