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NEWS
www.driving.org/news
‘Other drivers to blame for crashes’ survey reveals
A new survey by road safety charity Brake has found that 69% of motorists worry about being killed on the roads yet only 1% reckon they are worse-than-average drivers. The findings of the survey, which questioned 800 respondents, included the belief among almost all motorists that they are safer than, or as safe as, the average driver; 35% of drivers consider there are more dangerous drivers than safe ones; and 31% feel safer driving a car than travelling by any other form of transport. However, in an interesting reflection of how bad most of us are as passengers, only 5% reckon being driven in a car is the safest transport mode. Brake said the survey suggested that many
drivers overestimate their driving ability, while blaming other drivers’ risky driving for crashes on the roads. It added that in reality, a high proportion of drivers continue to regularly take risks such as speeding, drink-driving or driving when tired. Brake campaigns director Julie Townsend
said: “Being overconfident, and believing you can get away with risk-taking, is a really dangerous attitude behind the wheel. If you drive, you have a responsibility to yourself and others to stay within the law.”
PACTS warns against road safety funding cuts
The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS), a road safety lobbying body, says that lives could be put at risk if cuts are made to road safety budgets. It also asserted that it was important for casualty reduction targets to be established and met by 2020. PACTS executive director Robert Gifford said the UK
Killed and Seriously Injured (KSI) statistics show that the number of injuries and deaths on roads has fallen in the past three years. But in order to help these figures to fall even further, investment in road safety measures must continue. Gifford said: “If we fail to maintain our investment in
safety, it will be difficult to keep that trend falling. Without the necessary investment, lives will be put at risk.” He made his comments while launching a new PACTS
report for the RAC Foundation, Tackling the Deficit: Where Next for Road Safety? The report shows that some councils have already cut
road safety engineering by 60-80%, switched off speed cameras, abolished or reduced the number of lollipop men
and women, and cut road safety education programmes. The report also urges the government to set a target of reducing, by 2020, the KSI number by 50% compared with the average for 2004-08. Gifford added; “Britain has a long commitment to reducing death and injury on the roads.We need to maintain that commitment even in challenging economic circumstances. “Road crashes are preventable events. By focusing on
cutting these further, we can reduce demand on the health service and enhance the nation’s economic capability.” RAC Foundation director Professor Stephen Glaister supported this view, saying: “Britain has made huge strides in cutting road deaths over recent years, but further casualty reduction is not guaranteed. Reduced budgets and more traffic could mean more people killed rather than fewer. “To avoid this, the government must prioritise road safety
and send out a clear message to councils that this is an important area of policy.”
driving | April / May 2011
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