National road victim month 2015
04/08/2015
Author: Jane Penman
National Road Victim Month, an awareness campaign organised by the road safety charity RoadPeace, is taking place throughout August. The initiative aims to remind people of the devastating impact road accidents can have on people’s lives and to remember past victims.
More people are killed on the roads in August than in any other month of the year. Reasons behind this include an increase in the number of cars on the roads and more children being outside during the school break.
Figures recently released by the Department for Transport showed that there were 1,775 reported road deaths in 2014, an increase of 4% in comparison to 2013. Car occupants made up 45% of fatalities, followed by pedestrians at 25%, motorcyclists at 19% and cyclists at 6%. Despite this, 2014 had 45% fewer fatalities in comparison to figures in 2005.
Transport Minister Andrew Jones said: “Britain continues to have some of the safest roads in the world. In 2013 fewer people died on British roads than at any point since records began and last year was the third lowest total on record.”
Non-built up roads accounted for more deaths (896) than built up roads (783), whilst motorway fatalities decreased slightly by four from 2013 to 96 in 2014. Worryingly fatal accidents involving pedestrians increased by 12% to 446 in 2014, whereas the number of cyclist mortalities did not increase significantly, up four deaths from 2013 to a total of 113. That said, the amount of serious injuries suffered by cyclists rose by 8.2% to 3,401.
Jane Penman, a Partner in the specialist personal injury department at Russell & Russell Solicitors said: “Although the figures report the third lowest number of deaths on record, the amount of incidents involving vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists is concerning. As a firm that deals with personal injury accidents, we see a huge amount of injuries that are caused by the negligence of others. Speed and distractions are likely to be factors and we need to remain mindful that we share road space safely with other users and try not to cause accidents that could be avoided.”