Road Safety

Nusrat Ghani Excerpts

Tuesday 7th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate. It is personal to me, as I lost my grandfather in a road traffic accident before I was even born, and my grandmother was left with disability. Shipley experienced 183 road casualties in 2023, one of which was fatal. My hon. Friend mentions vision zero. West Yorkshire has a vision zero partnership that seeks to eliminate all traffic fatalities and injuries by 2040. It brings together the combined authority with local authorities, emergency services and National Highways, as well as victim support and road safety campaigners—speaking to his point about community. Is there still a place—I suggest that there is—for these vision zero partnerships, alongside the community approaches that he is advocating?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. Before the hon. Member responds, I remind Members that interventions should be short and to the point.

[Andy MacNae]

I agree fully with my hon. Friend, and there is no conflict between a vision zero approach and the community-led approach I am talking about. The issue is that while vision zero has been adopted by many local authorities, the implementation falls far short of the intent. It is therefore a question of finding the appropriate implementation and delivery mechanisms, rather than just rehashing the strategy.

As well as the Netherlands model I mentioned, similar preventive work has been pioneered by researchers using automatically collected data from car sensors to identify dangerous sections of roads. That is interesting, because it collects data that key success indicator stats do not highlight. They collate real-world data where cars harshly and suddenly brake. These models have proven effective in predicting areas of danger, and such systems could be used to proactively examine hotspots before collisions occur, taking account of near misses and validation experiences with communities such as ours.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andy MacNae]

Absolutely. That is the essence of what we are talking about. Given that average speed data is a blunt tool anyway, we should ask ourselves who knows best: the people who live on that road and experience it every single day, or someone sitting looking at an algorithm in county hall far away? As politicians and representatives of our constituents, the answer that we should give is that the community knows best. We should put in systems to support their everyday lived experience, not the other way around.

Secondly—and this point is linked to the first—we have to use the opportunities presented by devolution and local government reorganisation to embed best practice, including improving information sharing between authorities regarding the availability of new and emerging road safety technologies.

Thirdly, we must address the barriers to proactive implementation and enforcement measures, particularly average speed cameras. Fourthly, we have to develop a sustainable funding model based on bringing back netting off. Fifthly, we must make companies fully responsible for the actions of their drivers on public roads. Sixthly, we need a genuine safe system approach to road and pavement design to protect pedestrians and cyclists. Finally, we need to address accentuating factors via advanced safety and vehicle safety regulations and develop approaches to protect young drivers.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I am looking forward to hearing the Minister’s response, as road safety is a big issue in the Sussex Weald. Before I call her, though, I am told there are three very short contributions from Back Benchers. My worry is that there are more people standing than I have been alerted to—they will need to make their way to the Chair quickly, in the appropriate way, and make it clear what they are trying to do. Contributions will be short. First, I call my fellow Brummie, Paulette Hamilton.

[Paulette Hamilton (Birmingham Erdington) (Lab)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae) for securing this important debate. The issue of road safety is vital and we need a sustainable funding model. Local councils are a key player in improving prevention-based road safety.

I have heard a lot about rural settings from hon. Members this afternoon, but my constituency is in the middle of a city, and the problems occurring within cities are just as bad. People veer from main roads and go on to side streets. I would like to share an incident that took place this morning in my constituency, where yet another vehicle struck the bridge on Summer Road. This follows a recent incident where a truck collided with the same bridge and overturned. It is the third such occurrence since last November—it is simply unacceptable.

Does the Minister agree that the local council needs to step up and implement measures to address this issue, not only to prevent the severe disruption that is caused by these accidents, but to ensure the safety of other road users and pedestrians? My time as a nurse taught me that prevention is better than cure; it is much better to take measures now than to risk the safety of local residents in areas across this country.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Thank you so much—short and sweet.

[John Slinger (Rugby) (Lab)]

I will also try to be short and sweet, Madam Deputy Speaker. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae) on bringing forth such an important subject. He alluded in his excellent speech to the sheer number of fatalities, and it is perhaps worth reflecting on the fact that there are three times the number of road fatalities than homicides in an average year, which is something we could all bear in mind as we go about driving on the roads.

I want to draw Members’ attention to the importance of listening to our constituents who have sadly suffered the trauma of losing someone in a road traffic collision. In my constituency I have Giulietta and George Galli-Atkinson, who for 26 years have run the Livia awards, which recognise the professionalism and service to justice of police officers. I had the honour of speaking at the 26th award ceremony at the Metropolitan police headquarters this year. The awards are in memory of their daughter, who sadly was killed by a dangerous driver. I mention that because I believe it is incumbent on us to listen to the voices of those who have suffered the trauma and devastation of such unnecessary, preventable deaths. We need to hear their words and act on them. Community involvement is critical.

In conclusion, we must get the message across to our constituents that road collisions are, in all but the smallest number of cases, not accidents—they are preventable; they are avoidable. We must all take responsibility, including national Government. My hon. Friend the Minister takes these issues very seriously. We must tighten the law wherever we can and I know she is looking at various ways to do that. We must fund local authorities for their excellent work to help increase road safety and empower police forces to enforce our road traffic laws. We must do everything we can to empower ordinary citizens to engage with this really important issue. We must ensure that ordinary citizens are in control of our roads, not those who would endanger us all through their selfishness and criminality through dangerous and reckless driving.

Finally, we must take responsibility as individuals. Our constituents must take responsibility for driving more safely whenever they can so that we reduce the tragic number of avoidable and terrible deaths on our roads and the tens of thousands of serious injuries. We must reduce that number as much as possible.

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale and Darwen for giving us the opportunity to reflect on these important matters and to encourage the Government to do everything in their power to ensure that the number of road deaths and injuries is reduced significantly.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

To help the Minister prepare, we have three more very short Back-Bench contributions.

[Julia Buckley (Shrewsbury) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae) for securing this excellent and pertinent debate. All Members come with horror stories from our own constituencies, after families have been in touch with us. I mentioned that in Shrewsbury it was the family of Harvey Owen, who died with three other young children aged between 17 and 18 on a trip to Wales. The driver had been passed for one week.

That story is not unfamiliar in rural towns and areas like mine, where public services have been decimated. We have lost 5,000 bus routes since 2010, which means that 17-year-olds find themselves with no alternative but to learn to drive in order to access education, sport and social activities. That experience is reflected across the country, but particularly so in rural areas. Young drivers, aged between 17 and 24, are consistently over-represented in the statistics. Very distressingly, globally road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 15 and 29, and one in five drivers will crash within their first year on the road.

A national campaign group called Forget-me-not Families Uniting brings together families who have lost young people. One of those campaigners, Crystal Owen, the mother of Harvey Owen, who is from my constituency, put together a petition with 22,000 signatures, asking Ministers to look at measures to protect young drivers in particular. The Minister very graciously gave her time to meet Harvey’s mum and listened carefully to some of those suggestions, such as additional training for young drivers and progressive licensing, and safety measures such as “Harvey’s hammer”, a device that could smash open a window if a car is trapped. That could save many lives. I know the Minister is working really hard to develop a road safety strategy. I hope she will hear the message that young drivers are three times more likely to die. We must consider them in those safety measures and, in so doing, understand that this has a stronger prevalence in rural areas.

Members may be pleased to hear that today I have been granted a Westminster Hall debate on road safety measures, in particular to protect young drivers. I hope they will join me on Tuesday 29 January at 9.30 am.

In conclusion, I again appeal to the Minister that policies must go hand in hand with the other work we are doing to increase public transport, particularly in rural areas. It must be a viable alternative. I know the Minister will join me in my dream for Shrewsbury to have evening buses and a Sunday service. That would encourage young people to embrace public transport, rather than risking their lives on the roads.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

As a rural Member of Parliament, I tend to share the hon. Lady’s dreams.

[Jodie Gosling (Nuneaton) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae) for initiating this important debate.

I have heard many passionate arguments tonight about why our roads should be safer, and about deaths that were waiting to happen and were preventable, but I have been involved in a situation in which a death actually happened. Even after an 11-year-old was killed on one of our roads, we had to fight and campaign with his grieving mother for the road to be improved.

Harley James Jackson was killed during his first half-term at secondary school. His mum had to campaign to persuade the county council to make the improvements to that road, and it took two and a half years. We were told that the mean average speed on the road of 38 mph was within the expected range, although speeds of 5 mph and 80 mph at 8 pm were recorded in the speed data. The data is not consistent. We were also told by the safety officer during our campaign that there were 50 roads with similar speed characteristics but there was funding for only two.

This death could have been prevented. We knew that the road was dangerous; the community had said so, and the community campaigned. I can guarantee that no one knows more about that road than the mother of that child, who has campaigned ever since. We need to listen to these people in order to prevent such things from happening again.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

That was a very powerful speech. I call Amanda Martin to make the final Back-Bench contribution.

[Amanda Martin (Portsmouth North) (Lab)]

I welcome this important debate. A number of causes for concern are being raised with me by my constituents, and all of them are preventable. First, abandoned cars are routinely being left at the side of a road in my constituency, usually near car dealerships, with no MOTs or insurance. They can sit there for weeks, and they cause a hazard, because local schoolchildren are having to walk around them. One constituent contacted the council, only to be told that it was not the council’s responsibility and the constituent should go to the police. The police said, “Go to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency”, and the DVLA said, “Go back to the council.” Someone needs to take responsibility; that is vital.

The second problem is congestion. Cars pull up in bus lanes where there are no double yellow lines, near hospitals, when roads are jam-packed with buses. No one can get in or out, and that causes not only delays but accidents and damage to vehicles. Congestion, and accidents, are also caused by narrow streets and roads that are used as rat runs, with cars running all the way down them. Residents of Oakwood Road have been pushing for a one-way street, although there are speed bumps, because it would help with the flow of traffic and also with safety; the street in question is very near a school.

Finally, there is the serious issue of zebra crossing safety. A lack of signage means that crossings are ignored. One, in Baffins, is next to a sixth-form college and also near schools, and hundreds of pupils cross the road every day, but that zebra crossing and others are often ignored.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I call the Minister.