Road deaths up 4% – are our roads becoming more dangerous?

The increasing number of potholes, faded white lines and dirty signs must be a contributory factor.

I did a lot of motorway mileage a few years ago. I saw a lot of very bad driving, mainly trucks, vans and drivers of so called “prestige cars”. And I saw a lot of very bad driving by the police as well.

When there was a load of trucks in the inside lane being slowly overtaken by a line of trucks in the middle lane and a pack of “white van man” vans in the outside lane is was like driving in fog, no idea what was in front of this huge wall of steel.

Worst thing that ever happened to me was driving up the M40 on a dark and wet winters night, I was in the outside lane overtaking several trucks in the middle lane that were overtaking – eventually – some trucks in the inside lane.

I had just got past them as some lunatic in an Audi came out of the Warwick services and crossed right into the outside lane, which of course the Audi drivers think is reserved for them. Only problem was when he got there he was only doing about 45MPH and I was doing 70.

Of course Audi drivers all think their car is the most powerful machine created by man but it was a diesel so he wasn’t accelerating very fast. They don’t use their rear view mirrors either so this idiot ghad no idea he had a two ton Jeep Grand Cherokee rapidly coming up behind him on a wet road.

I just managed to avoid a collision with this clown and in the days before dashcams I would have got the blame for hitting him from behind.

The norm is to drive too close to the car in front and not allow a safety margin for the human mistakes we all make.

I agree with everyone else and would add five things I’ve observed as an English motorist in England since 1977 (I’m sure there are many more):
1. The complexity and volume of regulations and street furniture and notices that users have to watch out for has become unmanageable and therefore dangerous for most normal drivers. And most of us are not excellent drivers at all times, including cyclists. Therefore more accidents.
2. The almighty power of the traffic authorities, regulators and councils is not proportionate to the poor quality of the data and intellect of the people they employ. They don’t have the knowledge/data they think they do, and are working on a “one size fits all” computer model or models on spreadsheets that do not work in reality because the subject of driving is far more complex than their models allow for. Therefore there is a severe imbalance. Therefore the implementation of their reasoning in the use of their control devices including signage, lighting, cameras, speed laws, bumps, parking restrictions is sometimes very badly blind-spotted and flawed. This has made life almost unbearable on the roads for most normal users, day and night driving, and most people who used to love the pleasure of driving like me 20 or 30 years ago, now ache to leave the english roads for the continent. In dear old England we are, genuinely, almost expecting to be caught out by the authorities by one rule or another there are just so many rules and complexities imposed on us in increasing number! My personal opinion is that everywhere in merry England, where motoring used to be a joy, it has now fallen into the hands of over-powerful, un-democratically elected, non-expert, bureaucratic control of the authorities/councils, including the Mayor of London. So road users and motorists of all kinds feel unfairly oppressed and abused. I conclude that unrelaxed drivers make for more accidents.
3. The authorities are not listening to the motoring organisations or following their recommendations. They are doing what they think is right for their economic/political reasons and the drivers are becoming simply the football. Therefore more accidents.
3. New vehicles are not being designed for simplicity but for complexity, and there are too many things for drivers to be distracted by in cab. Also the headlamp strength seems to be unregulated and the lack of standard in this area is leading to poor visibility and glare distractions for night drivers. They are also have been allowed to become too wide and tall for normal use on English roads, so visibility for road users has become more and more restricted. Therefore more fatal accidents.
4. The marketing of more expensive, larger, safer, protected vehicles, unsuitable for most english roads has increased the threat on the safety of pedestrians, smaller cars and the vulnerable. The gap between large and small cars is widening. Therefore more serious accidents.
5. There has been a growth in “moral arrogance” of cyclists to use the main highways of england freely as if they own them, promoted by the politicians, media and authorities as if they “own” the roads as much as the vehicles do. This is an error and the arrogance needs curbing. Cycling boldly, two abreast is now common on main highways A roads and B roads in speed limit areas of 60mph. Cyclist rage sometimes results of two abreast is challenged by a queue of motorists behind in urban and countryside areas. It is simply impractical to drive around every corner on an A/B/white road as though an emergency stop will be required where a cyclist is riding along at 15mph and you are doing 40 to 60mph. Therefore more accidents.

It has been said that more than one thing needs to go wrong for an accident to happen. If one driver pulls out of a turning without looking, but an alert driver spots it – No accident. If a cyclist is travelling wide of parked vehicles and spots a door being opened in time – No accident. We all make mistakes, but with the alertness and goodwill of all road users, we can prevent the consequences of mistakes.

Some of the blame lies at the doors of the Department of Transport. The change to having overhead gantries to indicate lanes including exits on motorways is an example. Whereas we used to have clear signs 1/4-1/2 mile away from a motorway exit showing the exits coming up of which you could count off, we now often have single overhead single lane indications. I live nr the Bluewater A2/M25 junction and cars are always changing lane at the last second to take a junction exit. Even the M25/A2 junction roundabout lanes are a joke. Lastly has having a majority of delivery drivers from eastern Europe have any bearing on accidents, as they drive around here at breakneck speeds down single track roads. Why say eastern European you may ask, well when was the last time you had a UK driver deliver?

I have recently returned to driving in London after a gap of over 10 years.The change in driver behaviour is very apparent with speeding and aggressive driving the norm,whilst police presence and enforcement appears to be zero.I regularly see cyclists jumping red lights and cycling on pavements.
A minority of riders on scooters and motorcycles seem to think that every set of lights is the start of a race or an opportunity to do a wheelie.
I regularly see drivers using their phones and smartphones whilst driving and pedestrians walking around and crossing roads whilst staring into the screens of their smartphones.
I live in an area where the default speed limit is 20mph and just a few major roads with a limit of 30mph..I would judge that the majority of vehicles are at least 10% ,and they are free to drive at these speeds because there is no enforcement
Yes our roads have become more dangerous thanks to some of the idiots using them and failure of the Police or Transport for London to enforce the highway code.
Road deaths up 4% ?
I am surprised it is not higher.

I travel to all corners of the UK for both business and pleasure reasons. There several reasons for the increase, but the biggest one has to be the number of lorries on our roads, not only do they congest the roads, whether it is a motorway or A and B roads, but, due to their excessive weigh they break down the road surfaces,which causes the excessive number of road repairs. It is now time for the government to rebuild the rail network and remove these oversized vehicles off our roads. How many of these lorries are actually full? If we use rail terminal sites in strategic locations and then transport the goods on smaller lorries/vans. Then the roads will last longer(less roadworks) and reduce congestion and remove the dangers these large lorry cause in the small town and country villages. People have to realise that the towns and villages in the UK were built before roads and motorised vehicles and the streets are windy and narrow. With the advent of Satnav these lorries are avoiding congestion(that they cause) and disappear down roads unfit for them, damaging buildings and getting stuck because the roads are too narrow.
So lets get these things off our roads.

I am not surprised in the least to read these figures. Despite more and more stringent rules around obtaining a licence the attitude of drivers, of all ages, is deplorable.
Driving too fast and too close is prevalent as is the jumping of red lights and many other offences and ignoring of highway code rules and regulations.
I am a motorbike rider and do more miles on my bike than with my car and I am extremely wary of other road users as are some of my friends, despite this two of my biker friends have died on the roads in the past month.

Roads do not change Roads do not cause accidents Cars are now safer than ever but the standard of driving is getting worse by the day Drivers cause all accidents but drivers are not ever tested after passing the basic test It’s time the decision was made to start retesting drivers at intervals starting with all those involved in any accident or have committed a motoring offence than add parking offences to the list then careful safe drivers would not have to bother about having to be retested

Perhaps when we finally acknowledge the the tin boxes with wheels at each corner are simply modes of convenient transport (sometimes!) and that motoring is not a ‘sport’ we may the start to be witness to a general change of attitudes and less impatience and, indeed, aggression. In that respect, manufacturers, the motor trade and the often irresponsible motoring press and TV media have a major part to play in changing attitudes.

One of the great paradoxes is that the car industry is totally hung up with emphasising ‘power’ and ‘speed’ and ‘handling’ when we have a national speed limit of 70 mph and for the majority of our time when driving we are either crawling at horse carriage speeds or actually going nowhere very fast. Given the appalling volumes of road traffic with which we now have to contend, it must surely occur to one that our priority for car design has to be comfort for the drudgery of driving anywhere which has now largely become a miserable experience and is set to only get worse. Instead, we have cars which are overloaded with gizmos we rarely need and suspensions which increasingly shake us to bits because of the appalling states of our roads, all because some faceless car marketing guru has fatuously determined to sell us a machine which would be more suited to Le Mans 24 hours than going to work or taking the family on a trip.

That which we now essentially need is to be able to drive in comfort and at sensible paces which will then mostly (if not always!) reduce road assertiveness and frustrations. Indeed, managed speed limits are, to my mind, excellent if people will just mentally adjust to accept they will get there in the end and probably just as quickly and with measurable less stress. How often have readers flown past an HGV on a motorway, stopped for just a few moments of a ‘comfort break’, only to pass that same HGV several minutes later down the road? It’s all about relative velocities, but that seems to elude drivers generally!

Stress when driving leads to frustration and to aggression and to taking chances and to making what are sometimes serious mistakes. We can never totally eliminate accidents, but by changing our attitudes to what motoring is actually about we can readily reduce the number of accidents on our roads. Why can we never eliminate accidents completely? Because we are human and we will make mistakes and, above all else and above all else, because we are increasingly witness to selfishly blatant acts of less consideration for our fellow beings.

Totally agree with Lorna. State of road markings and signage is abysmal. Why arn’t highway chiefs prosecuted for not supplying roads that are fit for purpose

Dave
I must be unique. I can’t say I’ve noticed any significant reduction in driving standards. As a general rule I’d say it is pretty good where I live (Basingstoke) but I’ve lived in 9 locations from Yorkshire through Devon to Kent. I’m 75, driven 1 million miles, HGV 1 (as was) Advanced Motorist, cars & HGV, so I’ve been around a bit. I think cars are getting unnecessarily complicated. My current car is a Mitsubishi PHEV. Very good but some of the controls are badly placed. I have two below my left armpit with 3 more next to my left knee. Many are hidden below the steering wheel. And the computer…. Well, not only does it tell you how many satellites the sat nav is locked onto, it gives you a moving illustration of where they are! Need to know?
But I am worried that people seem to have no concept of what is going on around them. In a supermarket, two customers can stop their trollies opposite each other, diagonally or next to a pillar blocking the aisle. I bet they have above average motoring accidents.

More camera than ever, roads speed limits all reduced to cater for the idiot drivers and deaths go up? Don’t tell me, they need more cameras!

Frankly, I’m not surprised given that the Police appear to have pretty much given up on traffic policing. Following two deaths in the family over the summer, I’ve recently had to travel from Berkshire to York almost weekly, meaning a lot more motorway driving than I would normally do. In 5,000 or 6,000 miles of these journeys, I seen some utterly dreadful driving but only one police car, which was attending an existing accident. Police Constables have been very clear that cut-backs have meant they’ve had to curtail services, and it appears that traffic policing has been cut back to the bare bones, such that they are now resourced only to respond to accidents, not prevent them by discouraging bad driving.

The M40 is undoubtedly the worst. I’ve described it to friends as being like the wild west, a lawless land where anything goes.

I also do speed checks with the parish council in the village where I live, and have been shocked to find that one in six cars that are speeding do not have road tax and/or insurance. I can understand why (but certainly do not condone it) when the Police have effectively abandoned policing the roads in the face of budget cuts. But I don’t blame the Police. I blame the Government and the Home Secretary who imposed the cuts. Oh yes, that was Theresa Mayhem.

I have felt for some time that the standard of driving has decreased. So much so that I have bought a dash-cam and us it on all journeys. People seem to drive a lot closer than they used to, this is relatively easy to control by leaving a larger gap to the vehicle in front. Unfortunately the habit of undertaking and cutting in front us not so easy to control. On a recent journey on a motorway I was undertaken by a car on the hard shoulder which then switched through lanes 1 to 3 nearly clipping two cars on the way. Young, old, male and female it does not seem to make a difference.