This chapter presents some road accident trends, discusses the main causes and characteristics of road accidents, and proposes some possible ways of reducing them. Some statistics about accident rates and trends are given in tables or charts for the UK, and, in less detail, for Europe and five specific countries. Further UK statistics are discussed for car, pedestrian, bicycle, motorcycle, and public service vehicle accidents. The factors contributing to road accidents can be classified into road user factors (occurring in about 94.75% of UK accidents), road environment factors (28%), and vehicle factors (8.5%). Education in road safety is given to many children in the UK, and there are also some programmes to change the attitudes of drivers to improve their safety. Specific examples include teaching safety, safety programmes for the elderly, drinking-and-driving campaigns, seat-belt campaigns, and campaigns against speeding. Enforcement programmes are required in addition to safety education, and include programmes to improve the effectiveness of legislation for drink-driving, seat belts, motorcycles, and speed limits. Considerable changes have been made to cars and other motor vehicles to make driving safer. Several road and traffic engineering developments have greatly reduced the accident rate. For the covering abstract, see IRRD 892228.
Abstract