Road deaths at record low

The Government has released road death figures for 2008 and they are the lowest since records began in 1926. In 2008 2,538 people were killed on Britain's roads, the numbers some 14 per cent down on 2007 figures.

The numbers mean that the government has hit its 40 per cent target of reducing road deaths by 2010 compared to the mid-1990's average.

Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said: “Every death on the roads is a terrible tragedy, but these figures show that every day last year one less person died on the roads than in 2007 and that Britain now jointly has the safest roads of any major nation in the world.”

Kevin Clinton, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) head of road safety, said: “Every reduction in these numbers represents a person who has not been killed or injured and a family which has not suffered the devastation caused by a road accident.”

Despite the overall fall in numbers the number of children killed rose from 121 to 124, Clinton saying: “it is unacceptable that more children died on the road in 2008 than in 2007.”

The downward trend has been obvious for many years now, with the highest post war number of deaths standing at 8,000 in 1966. The reduction is a result of continual improvements to road and car design, though 2008's drop in traffic numbers as a result of the recession may have also contributed to the drop.

Despite the encouraging downward trend the government is said to be preparing plans to reduce the number among vulnerable groups like the children aged up to 17 by 50 per cent by 2020 compared to the level in 2010. Lord Adonis saying: “seven people are still dying on the roads every day and we will continue to do everything we can to prevent these tragedies.”

Kyle Fortune