Road Safety.

[empip]

- The UK has made little progress on reducing road deaths between 2001 and 2005. It has reached a seven percent reduction over this period, compared to around 25 percent in Sweden and the Netherlands, and 35 percent in France.

- Numbers of drink driving deaths in the UK have remained high over the last decade and have actually risen in relation to other deaths. This is also the case in six other countries.

- Mean driving speed in the UK has decreased over the last ten years by nine percent on urban roads. There has also been a three percent reduction in the mean speed on 70 mph all-purpose roads, but mean speed on 60 mph roads has increased by nine percent since 2001. It is only in France, Belgium and Switzerland that speed reductions have been recorded on all types of road in recent years.

- Seat belt use in the UK in the front seat of cars and vans is high at 90 percent (2005) but not as high as in the top three countries France, Germany and Malta....

And then, the probably correctly named...
" Transport minister Stephen Ladyman insisted Britain still has some of the safest roads in the world..." ...
My drive for one...

...Road Safety Minister Stephen Ladyman didn't accept the criticism, however. In response to the report, he said Britain has some of the safest roads in the world. "When assessed on the basis of fatalities per passenger kilometre," he said, "which I believe is the best indicator to use when drawing a comparison as it takes into account both the number of fatalities and level of passenger mobility, Britain is second only to Sweden."
...At a private meeting of road safety experts, he was accused of trying to deflect the blame for Labour's "failed policy" to the police.
The allegation followed the leaking of a critical letter he has written to police chiefs, ordering them to put greater emphasis on drink and drugdriving offences and traffic patrols.
But police blame ministers for failing to make roads policing a high enough priority.
Tory transport spokesman Mr Paterson said: "It's ludicrous to try and police 30 million motorists with automated machines. We need real living people, not roadside robots."...

No wonder Brown is looking elsewhere for ministers ! They seem to know not when to heed or ignore the 'expert'.

Here's a good training ground for camera fodder..

...Thousands of cyclists are risking their lives by riding through red traffic lights at busy junctions in Avon and Somerset.
Cameras monitoring these junctions have spotted well over 3,000 cyclists failing to stop at red traffic lights in the past 10 months.
A total of 42 cameras have been installed at traffic light controlled junctions to encourage drivers to comply with the signals and so reduce the risk of collisions in which people could be killed or seriously injured...

And that was only the 'monitored' cyclo-antics !