UK Safety 'not improving fast enough'

Brake has expressed its disappointment with the latest official Safety figures from the government.

This works out at an average of five deaths per day and is down by two per cent on the figure recorded in 2012. There has been a six per cent reduction in the number of serious injuries suffered, with a total of 21,657 people badly hurt in accidents on the road.

Brake has welcomed the reduction, but believes more needs to be done to bring these figures down faster.

Julie Townsend, deputy chief executive of the Safety charity, stated: "Road casualties in the UK are falling - but they are not falling nearly fast enough. Since 2010, progress has stalled dramatically."

Figures show that between 2007 and 2010, the number of deaths on British roads dropped by 1,096. However, in the past three years a reduction of just 137 has been achieved.

"At this rate, it will be many more decades before we reach the only acceptable number of casualties on our roads, and that number is zero," Ms Townsend stated.

She called for the government to be more proactive in the introduction of Safety measures, citing a default urban speed limit of 20mph, a zero-tolerance policy towards drink-driving and graduated driver licensing as examples of what could be done.

Ms Townsend's comments have coincided with the release of research from Kwik Fit, which found UK drivers are endangering themselves and others by failing to accurately assess stopping distances at speed.

The organisation discovered the average motorist misjudged the stopping distance while travelling at 70mph by 18.9 metres, which is the equivalent of close to five car lengths. Just ten per cent of drivers managed to accurately judge the distance between 91-100 metres, thus matching the 96 metres specified by the Highway Code.