IAM Roadsmart: drivers must be more alert to protect pedestrians

UK charity IAM RoadSmart is urging drivers to be more alert as pedestrians now make up a quarter of all road deaths on the country’s roads. IAM refers to figures released by the Department for Transport (DfT) for 2016 – the most recent figures available - which revealed 448 pedestrians were killed. This is an increase of 10% over 2015 - the DfT says drivers failed to look in 42% of crashes while pedestrians did not look in 54% incidents. In addition, a fifth of drivers failed to judge the other perso
May 25, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
UK charity IAM RoadSmart is urging drivers to be more alert as pedestrians now make up a quarter of all road deaths on the country’s roads.


IAM refers to figures released by the 1837 Department for Transport (DfT) for 2016 – the most recent figures available - which revealed 448 pedestrians were killed. This is an increase of 10% over 2015 - the DfT says drivers failed to look in 42% of crashes while pedestrians did not look in 54% incidents.

In addition, a fifth of drivers failed to judge the other person’s path or speed in car collisions while 17% of pedestrians made the same mistake before a fatal or serious impact.

Neil Greig, IAM RoadSmart’s director of policy and research, says while blame may not be easy to assign, drivers must adopt a special responsibility for looking for the safety of those on foot.

However, Greig also recognised that walking carelessly or hurrying is a contributing factor in pedestrian injuries and deaths.

Greig suggests: “Observing the body language of pedestrians will give drivers a clue of their intentions. For example, a pedestrian looking over their shoulder may be looking for a suitable gap to cross the road and anyone with their head buried in a smartphone or wearing headphones is at extra risk.”

Greig explains research on vision has found children of primary school age find it difficult to see or judge the speed of vehicles accurately.

“Slowing down around pedestrians and constantly scanning for clues to their intention is essential if we are to reduce the growing toll of pedestrian fatalities on our roads,” Greig adds.

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Bristol’s buses trial CycleEye detection system
    July 7, 2017
    Fusion Processing’s Jim Hutchinson looks at a two-year trial of the company’s cyclist detection system. Is cycling in a city dangerous? Well, that depends where you are and how you view statistics. Malmö is far more bike-friendly than Mumbai and the risk can either be perceived as small - one death per 29 million miles cycled in the UK in 2013 - or large - that equated to 109 deaths in the same year. Whatever your personal take on the data, the effect of these accidents can be felt indirectly too. News of c
    Read More
  • UK fleet operators commit to taking diesel vans off roads
    September 6, 2018
    In the UK, 16 public and private sector fleet operators are to invest £40m in a bid to deploy 2,400 electric vans by 2020. The operators – which include Tesco - point to a recent study, in which the health damage caused by pollution from diesel vans has been put at £2.2bn per annum to the UK National Health Service and to society. The newly-formed consortium – called the Clean Van Commitment – is backed by the Department for Transport and led by charity Global Action Plan and energy and services group Engi
    Read More
  • Brake, FTA welcome new guidelines on reporting medically ‘unfit’ drivers
    November 27, 2015
    Road safety charity Brake and the Freight Transport Association have welcomed the General Medial Council’s strengthened guidelines to all doctors emphasising their duty to disclose information to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) or DVA (Northern Ireland), where the patient has failed to act. It’s a shift that’s welcomed by road safety charity, Brake, which has long called for greater clarity from the GMC. Gary Rae, director of communications and campaigns for the charity, said: “This is
    Read More
  • Missouri’s smart solution for rural road monitoring
    July 7, 2017
    David Crawford sees how Missouri is using commercially available information to rapidly improve monitoring and driver information on rural highways. Missouri is a predominantly rural state with the second largest number of farms in the country and agriculture the main occupation in 97 of its 114 counties. US statistics starkly reveal how road accidents in rural areas tend to be more serious than in urban regions and of the 32,000 US motorists killed each year, 54% die on roads in rural areas even though onl
    Read More

Highlighted Content