The fleet industry will encourage employers to become more committed to improving road safety, in response to alarming new figures about fatal accidents on Britain’s roads.
The ‘Safe Roads for All’ campaign, launched last month by road safety charity Brake, is calling on employers to do more to monitor, report and improve road risk levels among its drivers, as well as increase awareness of the changes to the Highway Code.
British road crash data from 2021 analysed by Brake revealed that the rate of deaths and serious injuries of people on foot rose by 19% by distance travelled compared to the previous year. The same figures for cyclists went up 27% year on year.
Brake found that two thirds of all pedestrian or cyclist deaths occurred on roads with 30 mph limits. Out of 1,558 deaths nationally in 2021, 361 were people on foot and 111 were cyclists, while out of 25,892 serious injuries, 5,032 were people on foot and 4,353 were cyclists.
Brake delivers the National Road Victim Service, caring for more than 1,000 road victim families a year, with a team of 20 professional caseworkers deployed across the UK to provide emotional and practical support and advocacy for families facing shock and horrendous tragedy, from the day of the crash that killed their loved one or caused catastrophic injury in their family.
"Brake's National Road Victim Service sees the devastation caused by road crashes and cares for the bereaved and injured families,” said Mary Williams, chief executive of Brake. “Employers have an important responsibility to contribute to ending the carnage through occupational road risk management and can also help Brake with urgent funds we need to enable us to keep caring and campaigning.
“Both at a corporate and Government level, road risk management must include monitoring and reporting on the collision involvement of drivers and vehicles at work or commuting.”
Research conducted by Brake found that 58% of drivers thought that road users should be more aware of the safety of cyclists and motorcyclists. This year changes were made to the Highway Code that give greater priority to pedestrians and cyclists.
