Measuring to manage: tracking the safety of Britain's major road network: EuroRAP 2013 results

This report measures and maps the risk of death and serious injury road uses face on the British network where the majority of lives are lost - on motorways and 'A' roads outside cities. It shows road travel is getting measurably safer, particularly because of improving vehicle safety. Most vehicles now have airbags and crumple zones and new cars typically have a 4- or 5-star safety rating. However patterns of safety are changing as a result. Single carriageway roads are now 7 times more risky than motorways. As the flowers by the roadside attest, the main crash type causing death is running off the road. The main crash type causing serious injury is brutal junction impacts. The report highlights Britain's most improved road stretches where road managers have often paid just attention to road layout and detail to prevent significant death and serious trauma. The report shows that Britain's safest regions to live are where single carriageways are safer and the majority of travel is on safer motorway. It shows the most improved region is the east of England and the least safe is the East Midlands. This report provides one key measure of Britain's overall network safety performance from the combination of safer driving, safer vehicles and safer roads. But too much British improvement relies on improving vehicles not systematic improvement in infrastructure safety. The promised long term roads investment brings an exciting new opportunity to make our roads safer but it will require those accountable for infrastructure safety to adopt world class techniques to measure and manage their contribution in a way in which public and Parliament can have confidence.

• Record URL:
  • http://roadsafetyfoundation.org/news/2013/10/24/measuring-to-manage-2013-results.aspx
• Corporate Authors:

  Road Safety Foundation

  Basingstoke,    

  Road Safety Foundation

  ,    
• Publication Date: 2013

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 32p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash analysis; Fatalities; Highway design; Highway maintenance; Infrastructure; Injury rates; Types of roads by network
• Uncontrolled Terms: Safe systems (roads)
• Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
• ATRI Terms: Crash analysis; Fatality rate; Infrastructure; Injury rate; Road improvement; Road network
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01501281
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ATRI
• Created Date: Dec 13 2013 12:42PM