In the last decade, there have been more than 375,000 fatal and serious crashes. Thousands of stretches of road see the same human errors repeated year after year resulting in crashes that kill and maim.

This policy paper describes how Britain can become the undisputed world leader in road safety. As in all leading countries, we have to act on ALL the components of a safe road system together – behaviour, vehicles, and roads. The government has been tightening traffic law, not least in the enforcement of speed limits. New vehicles have soared in their safety standards from a typical 2-star to 4-star and even 5-star car crash EuroNCAP safety ratings following the introduction of the programme in the 1990s.