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Road Safety Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am grateful to noble Lords who have spoken. However, as a probing amendment, this is a little late, as the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, indicated. That does not mean that we cannot take it seriously but this is the first time the issue has arisen in this respect. The proposal seems to ally the concept of the Rail Accident Investigation Branch with what happens on the roads. The same could be said of other modes of transport, such as marine transport. Marine and rail accidents are few and far between; they are very serious when they occur. Quite frequently there are technical lessons to be learnt from them, and human error is often of quite a low order. Everyone in the House, particularly those who have spoken in these debates and have a great knowledge of road safety issues, knows that there are a very large number of accidents. Last year there were 2,978 accidents involving a fatality. The numbers involved are of a very different order of magnitude from those involved in railway accidents. A very large number involve human error. Technical and mechanical failures are of a relatively low order in accidents, although lessons are learnt about the issues the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, described, such as accident black spots. Local authorities and local police are best placed to make judgments about those. Of course accidents are investigated very carefully by police forces. Wherever a fatality occurs, they are obliged to do so because they need to consider the possibility that charges may be brought against someone involved in the accident. Local authorities are apprised and aware of where accidents occur. The local community is very alert to accident black spots. In fact, it often identifies areas which are not black spots but which cause concern given the potential for accidents. We recognise that local authorities play a very significant role. The police carry out their investigations. As the noble Lord, Lord Renton, said, a range of resources is available to the authorities in examining the causes of accidents. In addition, our department carries out research into accidents and academic studies are made of them. We are not short of evidence in identifying factors which contribute to accidents. We all aspire to a situation in which safety on the roads is comparable to that of the railway, air or marine industries. We all recognise why that is a difficult objective. We are far from achieving it because of the very large number of people who drive on the roads and the human factor involved. We cannot draw easy comparisons between the undoubted effectiveness of the investigations into rail, marine and air accidents and say that this concept could be easily translated to the thousands of accidents which happen, regrettably, on British roads during the year. Although we do not see the need for the body the noble Lord has proposed, I assure him that we take very seriously the necessity for examination of and research into accidents and for the identification of factors which can increase road safety. There is always a great deal to be learnt from accidents. As we have indicated in this debate, those with direct responsibility—often local authorities rather than central government—take action to ensure that there is improvement at accident black spots. I hope that the noble Lord will feel reassured and able to withdraw his amendment.