A new report by road marking and highway safety specialists, WJ Group, has highlighted the challenges and potential opportunities for improving road safety and reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured on the UK’s road network.
Released to coincide with Brake’s Road Safety Week, WJ Group’s new report, ‘Making Vision Zero a Reality‘, has been informed by a highways industry roundtable with industry leaders to drive progress on road safety. The roundtable discussion involving 15 senior highways professionals concluded that standards in the UK are now at risk of falling far behind those found in other European nations.
The roundtable, which took place earlier this year, gathered influential figures from across the industry to review current efforts for preventing serious incidents on UK roads. Attendees were unanimous in their view that collectively as an industry we must take firmer action to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on the road network.
Once considered a leader in road safety, consecutive years of reductions in funding and a lack of strategy has seen the UK’s KSI (killed or seriously injured) rate effectively plateau over the past decade compared to significant improvements in the 2000s. According to the latest government figures, the number of people killed or seriously injured on the UK’s road network stands just under 30,000.
Although this shows a small reduction when compared to previous years, this number has remained relatively stable since 2010, barring a minor improvement during 2020, although this could be attributed to COVID reducing traffic levels. Given this current trajectory, ‘Vision Zero’ – the objective to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries – is a distant hope rather than a realistic goal.
At the WJ Group roundtable, attendees shared different stories of highways incidents from across the country. It soon became clear that many could have been avoided or less severe. While dangerous driving and genuine mistakes did account for loss of life, poor design, maintenance and management issues were also major contributing factors to the UK’s KSI rate.
Using the insight from the roundtable, WJ Group has created ‘Five Cs’ to help the highways industry make Vision Zero a reality:
- Culture
The further development of the industry’s safety-first culture, considering safety within every aspect of the decision-making process and ensuring it is never compromised. Lessons can be learned from other sectors such as aviation where any safety breach is treated as something going catastrophically wrong.
- Centralisation
There are multiple databases filled with information about the road network such as how to improve safety that have not been brought together. By doing this, highway authorities will be able to continuously learn and improve from one another, as well as provide a forum for contractors and councils to discuss regulation.
- Creativity
By maximising existing technology, highway authorities can reestablish the connection between efficient asset management and safety. Alongside this, it can also create the link among innovations and demand which, in turn, can deliver road safety interventions with measurable outcomes in mind.
- Conflict
By creating a baseline standard for road safety that is recognised across the industry, conflicts such as justification for noise reduction versus improved safety and funding both can be addressed and managed by highways authorities. This can be done by implementing safe systems approach to enhance design and management of the network.
- Collaboration
Detailed in depth in WJ Group’s new report, safety successes across the industry must be shared to promote new learnings alongside the need to facilitate knowledge sharing according to a recognised structure. This will help collaboration within the industry, bringing different stakeholders together and help push it towards a safer future.
Speaking on the roundtable’s findings, Wayne Johnston, CEO at WJ Group said: “Strategies such as Vision Zero should not be considered unachievable. By bringing together 15 experienced highways leaders, we have been able to further the conversation on what the industry thinks and what must be done to reduce the number of people who lose their life through avoidable road incidents.
“Using their years of expertise, we have created the ‘Five Cs’ as a blueprint for the industry to implement change without the need to significantly increase budgets.
“If we continue this trajectory, then members of the public are still at risk each and every time they use the road network. It is our duty to mitigate this and create a safe environment for everyone. By recognising and implementing learnings from ‘Making Vision Zero a Reality‘, we as an industry can take small and simple steps that will greatly impact road safety.”
