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Road Safety

I am pleased to have the opportunity today to debate the important topic of road safety. This debate is taking place on estimates day, and it is very important, indeed, that essential spending on road safety measures be maintained. Road safety is about the lives of individuals and their families, and it is even more than that: it is a major issue that affects all our society. The Transport Committee's report, "Ending the Scandal of Complacency: Road Safety Beyond 2010", sees road safety as a public health issue, looks at a way forward and how the situation can be improved and makes important recommendations to the Government. The road safety debate is ongoing. The Government produced an interim response followed by a fuller response, and that was linked to the Government's road safety strategy consultation called, "A Safer Way: Consultation on Making Britain's Roads the Safest in the World". The Committee's report commends the Government on reaching their targets on road safety, and the most recent figures record, for 2008, the lowest number of road casualties yet. However, if we look at the cold facts, we find that 2,538 people still died on our roads in 2008; that 26,029 were recorded as having been seriously injured; and that there were total casualties of 230,884. That means thousands of blighted lives, and it is worth noting that road accidents are the largest single cause of death in people aged between five and 35 years old. They are tragedies for the individuals and their families, but it is a national scandal that so many people die. It is self-evident—indeed, it should make us think a little—that the scale of the carnage on our roads is not acceptable in any other mode of transport. We are talking about 2,500 people dead and more than 230,000 casualties, and, if those figures related to rail, sea or aviation, there would be national uproar. However, there is no uproar about them.