this paper discusses the extent to which the British government's overall target for reducing road accidents is being met, together with prospects for achieving them in the future. It includes detailed statistics and charts of actual and projected progress. The target is to reduce road casualties in Great Britain from the average level for 1981-1985 by one third by the year 2000. The target's purpose was to provide a focus and shared aim for concerted action by all people who could contribute to road safety; as such, it has been very successful in generating commitment to reduce road casualties. Excellent progress has been made so far in reducing deaths and serious injuries. However, there is still a long way to go to achieve the target reduction in all casualties, despite significant increases in road safety activities and in the resources allocated to them. The author argues that lack of progress in this respect has been due to a much larger than expected rise in traffic growth. If that is true, it should be possible to make much better progress in the next few years, due to the lower traffic growth that is now forecast. The target should be brought within range by the significantly increased funds now being spent on local safety schemes, combined with camera technology for detecting speeding drivers. The gap could be closed by introducing measures to: (1) improve the safety of young drivers; (2) control excessive speed.
Abstract