A new report from RoadPeace, the national charity for road crash victims, links cuts in traffic police numbers with a decrease in the prosecution of the more serious driving offences, and a rise in vulnerable road users killed and seriously injured.

“Our Lawless Roads: Road policing, casualties and driving offences since 2010” highlights what it describes as ‘the increasing human costs of austerity’.

The report updates and quantifies the changes in law enforcement on our roads by bringing together data in court prosecutions, fixed penalty notices and diversionary courses, such as the National Speed Awareness Course.

The analysis shows that between 2010-15 there was:

  • A halt to the long term decline in the number of collisions where people were killed or seriously injured. With numbers of vulnerable road users killed or seriously injured increasing in England and Wales, outside London
  • A disproportionate decline in the number of traffic police, down 28%
  • A drop in fatal collisions by just 5% whilst prosecutions of causing death by driving offences fell by 23% and convictions by 29%
  • A drop in “Fail to stop” prosecutions by 32%, despite an increase in hit and run casualty collisions. Hit and run collisions accounted for one in five casualty collisions in London in 2015
  • A drop in drink/drug driving prosecutions by 16%

According to RoadPeace, there is no evidence that increasing compliance by drivers could explain these declines.

  • Speeding and its related sanctions rose to over 74% of all driving offence sanctions
  • The proportion of motoring sanctions identified using cameras rose from an estimated 45% to nearly 70%
  • Diversionary courses have risen from 16% to 46% of the total

But RoadPeace says that with ‘so many speeding drivers being spared penalty points through NDORS, the deterrent effect is feared reduced’.

New RoadPeace Patron, Baroness Jones, said: “The last six years have seen a turn-around in the numbers of vulnerable road users being seriously injured in England and Wales, but not in London where we were able to invest in roads policing. Following years of steady decline across all road users, we have seen a rise in death and serious injuries among pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists – those who have benefited least from advances in crash protection technology. Vehicles have got safer, while our roads have got more dangerous. So I am honored to become a Patron of RoadPeace where I will continue to press for safer and fairer transport system for all road users.”

Amy Aeron-Thomas, RoadPeace Advocacy and Justice Manager, said: “It should not be so hard to find out what the police are doing to keep us safe on the roads—especially while the government is trying to get us out of our cars and onto our feet and bikes. The desired and needed increase in vulnerable road users should come with an increase in traffic law enforcement, not less.”

Read the full RoadPeace report, Our Lawless Roads: Road policing, casualties and driving offences since 2010.