Road safety strategy must move from ambition to action, RoSPA tells MPs
Our road safety strategy must move from ambition to action, RoSPA tells MPs
RoSPA has welcomed the Government’s new Road Safety Strategy as an important opportunity to reduce deaths and serious injuries on UK roads, but has warned that its success will depend on how quickly it is implemented.
Giving evidence to the Transport Select Committee, RoSPA’s Director of Policy and Impact, Steve Cole, said the strategy contains many positive measures, but stressed that the priority now must be turning ambition into action.
“The key challenge is the implementation of it,” he told MPs, highlighting the need to make up for a decade in which road safety progress has largely stalled.
The road safety sector is not short of evidence. Many of the interventions being considered – including vehicle technologies, licensing reforms and speed management measures – are already supported by extensive research and successful examples from elsewhere.
RoSPA urged policymakers to learn from approaches taken in Scotland and Wales, where clear Se System approach based strategies, dedicated investment and stronger accountability have produced significant progress on road safety improvements.
Steve highlighted the value of Vision Zero principles, which set the bold but achievable ambition to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on our roads. He noted that this approach creates a shared focus on preventing road harm, while emphasising that the immediate focus should be delivering practical measures already proven to work.
RoSPA also reiterated its support for the creation of a Road Safety Investigation Branch. This would work to uncover the wider causes of collisions and make sure lessons are learned to prevent future tragedies, in the same way that investigation branches operate in other transport sectors like our railways.
Work-related road risk was another key issue raised during the session. RoSPA called for stronger reporting and oversight of road collisions in cases where people are driving for work, noting that driving remains one of the most significant workplace risks faced by employees across the UK.
Throughout the evidence session, Steve returned to the importance of accountability, investment and pace.
RoSPA believes the road safety strategy provides a strong and much needed foundation but achieving meaningful reductions in casualties will require clear delivery plans, defined responsibilities and sustained funding.
As Steve told the Committee, “We know what the evidence is, so let us get on and do it.”
The challenge now is ensuring that action follows quickly enough to save lives.