No time for Orwellian language on road safety

IT would be more accurate if your July 15 headline ‘How our roads are three times safer than 1980s’ read ‘three times less dangerous’.

Public roads are still highly dangerous. Nor can fatalities be equated to danger; the intermediate factor is behaviour. Everyone today has learnt to live with traffic and people are a lot more careful now. Traffic speeds are a lot faster, which clearly means more, not less, danger. The other change is that fewer people walk or cycle. The overall decline in casualties is largely due to the fall in casualty rates for vulnerable road-users, especially walkers, but this in turn has been due to the virtual abolition of this means of travel. However, in terms of exposure, casualty rates for this class of road-user have increased and are now 10 times higher than for car occupants. The National Safety Council (NSC) claims credit, of course, but this trend is echoed in every country as traffic increases. This is not the time for Orwellian language, unsubstantiated claims or self-congratulations by the NSC.

Michael Job