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New Road Safety Bill in Britain 

 

From the Queen's Speech

 

23 November, 2004

 

 

"A Bill will be introduced to help reduce further the numbers of those killed or injured on the roads"

 

The suggestion of a Road Safety Bill in this session of Parliament is welcome. The possibility was indicated by David Jamieson, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, when he appeared before the Transport Select Committee in July. It is to be hoped that the Bill will make speedy progress through Parliament to achieve Royal Assent before the anticipated General Election.

 

Possible content of a Bill could include:

  • The power for the police to undertake evidential roadside breath-testing and for the courts to impose mandatory re-testing of the worst offenders;

  • Increased penalties for road traffic offences, including driving whilst using a hand held mobile phone, careless and inconsiderate driving and using a vehicle in a dangerous condition;

  • More effective use by the police of motor insurance data and Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology to detect uninsured drivers;

  • A more flexible system of fixed penalties for speeding offences;

  • Increased use of retraining courses for serious offenders, and

  • Improvements to driving instruction and testing procedures.

The inclusion of a Bill in the Queen's Speech could be interpreted as recognition that road safety is a quality of life issue. If speeds on our roads can be reduced and action taken to tackle careless and dangerous driving, our communities will become safer and more pleasant places in which to live, work and play. This Bill will give Parliamentarians an opportunity to debate road safety within the wider sphere of regeneration and community development.

 

Giving the police the power to undertake evidential roadside testing is long awaited. This will enable the police to undertake more tests, thereby helping to improve the efficiency of the testing regime. It is a great pity, however, that the government has failed to take the opportunity to lower the maximum permitted Blood Alcohol Content in the same Bill - a measure that would save at least 50 lives a year according to its own calculations.

 

A much more substantial debate is likely to take place over the proposal to introduce flexible fixed penalties for speeding offences. This was originally proposed in the DETR, Home Office and Lord Chancellor's Department joint consultation on Road Traffic Penalties, published in December 2000. In this document, the indicative proposal was for existing penalties to remain in place but for more serious speeding offences to be punished more heavily. The DfT consultation document, published in August 2004, proposed reducing the current 3 points and £60 fine to 2 points and £40 for breaking the 30mph speed limit by up to 9 miles per hour. For Parliamentarians, it will obviously be important to separate the principle of creating flexible punishment to reflect the severity of the offence from the operational detail of the scheme, as proposed, that sends out a very different message to the road user.

 

In conclusion, it would be difficult to argue against the proposals suggested for the Bill. What may be lacking is an over-arching narrative similar to that contained in the Traffic Management Act. This placed a duty on local authorities to consider the expeditious movement of all traffic, including pedestrians. A Road Safety Bill should place a similar duty on national and local government to consider the safety of all road users in developing and implementing policies.

 

 

Source: The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS)