PACTS Report: Misunderstanding and missed opportunity

October 17th, 2007 | by admin |

On a brief read of the new PACTS report on “Beyond 2010 – a holistic approach to road safety in Great Britain”, Safe Speed notes a tragic misunderstanding on the nature of road safety and a missed opportunity to drive the debate forwards.

Commenting on the report, Paul Smith, founder of SafeSpeed.org.uk, said: “PACTS have fundamentally misunderstood the role of drivers in road safety. Drivers manage risk in real time. It is changes in the quality of drivers’ risk management that will dominate road safety changes in the next 20 years.”

“Presently we are seeing a serious and ongoing decline in average driver quality which has caused the ‘trend failure’ that the road safety industry is becoming painfully aware of.”

“PACTS had a golden opportunity to place ‘driver quality’ at the heart of the road safety debate where it belongs, but that opportunity has been tragically missed.”

“They call it holistic approach – but they have missed the most important factors. Road safety depends on driver quality.”

“We don’t need more regulation. We don’t need more speed management. These policies have failed in spades. We need better drivers through education, information, and above all improved road safety culture.”