This year’s annual report finds 15 stretches of road where authorities have taken relatively low cost action that has reduced fatal and serious crashes by 80%: 237 people were killed and seriously injured on these 15 roads in the 3 years before the action was taken but 52 after. The economic value of just these few low cost improvements is estimated at a staggering £0.4bn. This highlights how effective simple infrastructure safety improvement can be.

This year’s results also show the major differences in regional performance. The risk of death and serious injury is two thirds higher on the major roads of the East Midlands than it is in the West Midlands. This difference is larger than between many countries. The results show that the West Midlands and Scotland are the two regions improving most quickly.