Margaret Winchcomb was in conversation with Craig Thomas

PACTS was founded over 40 years ago and is one of the longest-running charities in the transport safety sector. Unlike many similar organisations, PACTS addresses transport safety across road, rail and air in the UK and is focused on advising the government. 

In May this year, in the run-up to the UK general election, it published a manifesto for road safety, a collaborative project bringing together representatives from the road safety sector to consider what the new Labour government really needs to do about the current state of road safety in the UK. At the same time, CIHT released its ‘A transport network fit for all our futures’ manifesto.

Margaret Winchcomb, Deputy Executive Director of PACTS, outlined the main proposals of their manifesto, which they say the UK government should prioritise when introducing new road safety legislation.

Strategy first

“The first demand from the manifesto is for the government to publish a road safety strategy, one that includes targets such as key performance indicators to track progress. We used to have trackers with targets back during the years of the last Labour government,” she explains.

“The manifesto also calls for the adoption of the general safety regulations, a package of fifteen safety measures for vehicles which have been adopted in Europe. 

In addition, it asks for a road safety investigation branch to be created replicating what happens in the air and rail sectors. When fatal collisions occur, analysis is needed to understand why it happened and what changes need to be made in the road design, in the vehicle design, in the speeds that people travel at and the way in which road users use the space. And then in the post-collision response element as well, feedback from first responders provides us with an endless circle of information.”

Gathering data

A recent report published by the RAC Foundation very clearly shows the business case for establishing a road safety investigation branch. Being able to analyse the wide variety of themes that underlie collisions means that a huge amount of data, from a range of sources, can be collected. The organisation wouldn’t investigate every fatal collision, but common themes could be followed through from these cases.

Currently the data collected is somewhat piecemeal. Some local authorities produce a collision investigation of their own within a couple of weeks of a fatal collision, but that represents only a small part of the UK. It seems clear a nationwide scheme would bring important coverage.

Also included in the manifesto is a call for graduated driver licencing, which means that new drivers have conditions on their licence – such as driving at night or having an older driver in the car – until they gain enough experience. The driver trainer industry has been advocating this initiative for over a decade, but it is getting closer as a reality.

Winchcomb concludes: “Northern Ireland is further along this path than the nations in mainland UK, stating their aims and a list of things that they want to do to achieve it. They're currently monitoring how many people are killed or seriously injured not just in the 17-23 age group, but also caused by road users of that age.

“At some point, the [UK] government could introduce measures to save the lives of these young people and other people using our roads.”

Read the CIHT and PACTS policy briefing on speed management.

In May 2024, CIHT signed up to the PACTS Manifesto for Road Safety.

Image: a learner driver in Portsmouth, UK; credit: Shutterstock.