Road accidents 'cost NHS £470m'

12 April 2012

Deaths and injuries on Britain's roads costs the NHS £470m every year and the economy £8bn as well as destroying families, according to a Government watchdog.

Better education is needed to reduce the annual toll of more than 3,000 fatalities and 267,000 injuries, according to the Audit Commission.

The report, Changing Lanes, will be presented to a major conference on road safety which will be opened by transport minister Stephen Ladyman on Monday.

More than 250 delegates from the UK and abroad are attending the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents' (RoSPA) national road safety congress in Stratford-upon-Avon.

The report says that although the UK's roads are among the safest in the world, a child pedestrian is three times more likely to die here than in France and twice as likely to die as in Italy.

The number of motorcyclists killed is also rising despite an overall fall in casualty levels, it warns.

Redesigning road junctions and installing pedestrian crossings must be partnered with tougher enforcement of the laws banning use of mobile phones and speeding.

Commission chief executive Steve Bundred said: "Just like drinking and driving, using a mobile phone at the wheel or speeding near schools should be socially unacceptable.

"It is clear that many accidents are avoidable. Councils have shown that as well as targeting accident blackspots with safety cameras and better engineering, it is also possible to change the attitude and behaviour of road users that cause accidents."

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