IAM Rural Road Report falls drastically short
Thursday, November 15th, 2007A new IAM report [1] into rural road crashes promises in the very first line, to tell us “Where, when and why are people killed on rural roads”.
It then completely ignores the ‘why’ and offers no answers at all. This is especially tragic because the ‘why’ should be the IAMs strongest suit.
But the ‘why’ is crystal clear to the Safe Speed road safety campaign. All the work we have done since 2001 points to one inescapable conclusion. British drivers are, on average, getting significantly worse.
Paul Smith, founder of SafeSpeed.org.uk, said: “There’s one fundamental reason that rural road crashes head the list. British drivers are getting significantly worse. Rural roads expose shortfalls in skills and attitudes.”
“Department for Transport doesn’t even have a working definition of what it means to be a good driver. Yet we know that crashes happen because drivers make mistakes. No wonder their policies are failing.”
“The IAM exists to promote improved driving standards, yet when they publish a report on rural road crashes caused by poor driving standards, driver quality doesn’t even get a mention. What on earth are they thinking of?”
“The IAM’s gross oversight is an indicator of the appalling failure of British road safety. No wonder road deaths aren’t falling significantly. No wonder road crash hospitalisations have risen every year for four years. No wonder we’ve slipped to 20th in Europe for rate of improvement. The IAM has fallen tragically short in what should be their strong suit.”
“One thing’s for sure. We cannot blame our rural road death rates on drivers speeding [2].”
“Safe Speed’s road safety manifesto [3] identifies driver quality management strategies that would reverse the decline almost overnight.”
