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PACTS NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2007
‘Beyond 2010’ Report Released
On Tuesday 16th October, PACTS released their most recent research report, ‘Beyond 2010 – A Holistic Approach to Road Safety in Great Britain’ authored by Emily Crawford.
The report is intended as a contribution to the debate about whether Great Britain should consider a further round of measures to cut road casualties when the current targets expire in 2010.
It takes into consideration both the arguments for a third round of targets, the need for an overarching vision for road safety and the policy context in which road safety needs to be considered.
It takes as given the need to continue work on engineering and enforcement and highlights instead those areas where further progress needs to be undertaken.
The report offers wide-ranging recommendations focusing on areas such as creation of ambitious government casualty reduction targets, default 20mph speed limits in built-up areas, specific strategies targeting both young drivers and the ageing population as well as measures concerning road pricing, enforcement and delivery.
A full copy of ‘Beyond 2010’ has been sent to all PACTS members and is also available in CD-ROM format or, along with the executive summary, as downloadable PDF files from the PACTS website.
Furthermore, the report and responses to it, will provide the topic for the PACTS March Conference.
PACTS Conference – Cutting Casualties Involving Driving for Work
The PACTS autumn conference, tackling the issue of ‘Driving for Work’ and its associated casualties, took place on Tuesday 9th October at the Royal Society of the Arts.
With over 100 people in attendance Jim Fitzpatrick MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Transport, delivered the keynote speech whilst David Kidney MP chaired the morning session.
The conference discussed the scale of deaths and injuries arising from ‘Driving for Work’ and aimed to highlight the resources and strategies available in the push to tackle the problem.
Speakers came from a broad range of backgrounds including the insurance industry, Ordnance Survey, TRL and the police service.
Copies of these presentations are now available upon request from gillian.reeves@pacts.org.uk.
Novice drivers: Government response to Transport Select Committee
The Government response to the Transport Select Committee’s Special Report on Novice Drivers was published on Wednesday 17th October.
The report broadly agrees with the suggestions made by the Select Committee and is to undertake a wide-ranging consultation into the subject towards the end of the year.
An interesting point to note was the recorded levels of vehicles being seized whilst being driven unlicensed or uninsured, which was noted as 78,000.
This is an intriguing statistic; reiterating the levels of enforcement being undertaken but also a slightly disconcerting exemplification of the problem we face with those who are simply choosing to circumvent the licensing and insuring system within this country.
The report is available for download in PDF format from the PACTS website under the Ministerial Statements within the Parliament section.
18th Westminster Lecture
PACTS is hosting their annual Westminster Lecture on Transport Safety on Tuesday 4th October at The Commonwealth Club.
Traditionally this a well attended and enjoyable evening with a formal dinner following the lecture.
This year’s gathering will be addressed by James Reason CBE, who will talk on ‘Recurrent Patterns in Transport Accidents: Conditions and Causes’. Jim Fitzpatrick MP will then provide the Government response.
The attached flyer gives further details including booking information.
Any queries, please contact Gillian Reeves either by email or tel: 0207 222 7732.
Mobile phone use in aircrafts
As some of you may have seen during the recent press coverage it is becoming increasingly likely that in the near future mobile phone use within passenger aircrafts will be permitted.
PACTS produced a briefing in Summer 2007 considering the safety implications of this decision as well as the impacts on passenger privacy and comfort.
The document is available on the PACTS website on the ‘Briefings and Articles’ page.
PACTS Report: Misunderstanding and missed opportunity
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, 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."
Contact PACTS for a copy of the new report: http://www.pacts.org.uk
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