Organisation: Department for Transport
Date uploaded: 30th July 2019
Date published/launched: July 2019
The action plan is designed to build on a number of projects in the Road Safety Statement, published in 2015, which saw increased enforcement for drug driving and doubling penalties for using a handheld mobile phone at the wheel.
Funding awarded in the plan includes:
• A £225,000 grant awarded to Good Egg Safety to deliver a nationally-accredited safety training programme for retailers, to help parents correctly fit baby and child seats
• £200,000 awarded to Road Safety GB to be used (in part) to carry out research into the effectiveness of classroom based road safety education, and determine if children can retain the knowledge learned and demonstrate the correct behaviours over a period of time
• £50,000 awarded to PACTS to review drink driving trends and interventions
• £50,000 awarded to RoadSafe to deliver a digital platform to share best practice to reduce risks for older road users
The Government points to figures which show that in 2017, 27% of car deaths involved people that were not wearing a seatbelt – meaning one in four car deaths could have been prevented by belting up.
Currently, offenders are given a £100 on-the-spot fine, but the Government is considering introducing penalty points as well as fines for the offence.
A Rural Road Users Advisory Panel will also be set up to explore how to boost road safety in rural areas, particularly by improving roads and traffic signs, and issues around speed limits and enforcement.
Road users of all ages to benefit
The action plan is designed to ‘improve road safety for people at every stage of life’, with a package of measures for road users of all ages.
Children
The £225,000 grant to develop a training programme to help parents correctly fit baby and child seats comes after research in which 70% of parents said they didn’t know how to properly install child seats.
The plan also includes research into whether mobile phone use among young pedestrians leads to an increased risk of road collisions.
In order to help young people with special educational needs and cognitive disabilities, the Government will fund research into road safety support to help children aged seven to 18 years to understand the dangers near roads.
Road Safety GB has developed an ‘augmented reality’ app, called ‘Arility’, in which virtual objects are layered over real world settings – to deliver engaging travel and road safety information to primary school aged children.
Young and newly qualified drivers
The DVSA is developing a behavioural change campaign to encourage learner drivers to broaden their experience, by using more rural roads and driving at night before taking their test.
The plan also includes research to look further at the benefits of introducing graduated driver licensing.
The THINK! team will continue reinforcing road safety messages through continuous campaigns focusing on drink driving, using mobile phones while driving, speeding, and dangers around passenger distraction.
Adults
The Government is investigating whether alcolocks – devices which measure the alcohol in a driver’s breath and stop a vehicle from starting if that level is too high – can reduce drink-driving reoffending, as part of a rehabilitation programme.
Also previously reported is a two-year project with the Home Office and National Police Chiefs’ Council to review roads policing, to identify best practice and any gaps in service provision in order to see how policing can be improved.
Older drivers
RoadSafe has been given £50,000 to deliver a digital platform to share best practice to reduce road safety risks for older road users.
For more information contact: