Say yes to cheaper van, home and car insurance

A discrepancy concerning road accident figures released by the Department for Transport (DfT) and those reported by hospitals has been highlighted in the British Medical Journal.

A report in the journal showed that the DfT is claiming deaths and serious injuries on our roads have fallen steadily for years, while hospital admission figures for road injuries have remained almost constant for ten years.

This has led to claims from Safe Speed, the road safety campaign, that our roads are not safe, which if true could lead to increases in car insurance premiums.

Safe Speed argues that the hospital statistics are more likely to be correct as the DfT may be under reporting the problem in order to save face for the government.

"Department for Transport has a dangerously oversimplified view of road safety. Despite over a decade of ever-increasing speed controls the roads have not got safer," said Paul Smith, the campaign's founder.

"We're spending far too much time concentrating on the wrong safety factors - and [the department] is responsible," he added.

Mark McArthur-Christie the Association of British Drivers' director of policy is equally concerned: "Despite millions spent on humps, calming, cameras and campaigns, our roads are not getting safer".

"Simplicity, sound bites and political expediency have been allowed to dictate a road safety policy that is more concerned with legality than safety.

"These figures show we need finally to acknowledge that safe driving is about so much more than speed. What about observation? What about anticipation? What about hazard management?" he adds.

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