While welcoming casualty figures for 2007 unveiled by the DfT last week, LARSOA warned that more needs to be done to improve safety for motorists and other road users.
The figures published in ‘Road Casualties Great Britain: 2007 - Annual Report’ show that 2,946 people were killed in 2007 – a reduction of 226 (7%) on the previous year. The figures also showed there were 247,780 road casualties, 4% fewer than in 2006.
Alan Kennedy, vice chair of LARSOA, said: “The reductions shows the positive work being done by road safety professionals across the UK.
“That said, we call on the Government to provide greater investment in road safety activities to help us in the work we are doing.”
Sheila Rainger, deputy director of the RAC Foundation, said the road safety community must ensure this was ‘a sustained improvement and not a flash in the pan’.
Meanwhile Brake, the road safety charity said the figures show a ‘shameful link between deprivation and deaths on roads’.
Cathy Keeler, Brake’s deputy chief executive, said: “As a civilised society, we have a duty to protect the most vulnerable people on our roads and in many cases we are failing them. It’s time we adopted a zero tolerance approach to risk-taking on roads and worked towards eliminating needless deaths and injuries.”
