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4.53 pm
Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Carlisle (Mr. Martlew), who has clearly given a lot of thought to these matters. I congratulate the Select Committee and the hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside (Mrs. Ellman) on the presentation of their report. I declare an interest, in that I am chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on road safety, and of the associate parliamentary group for justice for road traffic victims, with which the charity RoadPeace is connected. I first became interested in road safety issues a good 40 years ago when, as a young reporter on the local newspaper, the Essex County Standard, I had the unfortunate duty of reporting on road crashes and attending inquests.
My understanding is that the number of road deaths last year—2,500—was the lowest since records began, and that it was on a par with the figure for 1926, when there was considerably less traffic on the roads. I also understand that we reached a peak of about 8,000 road deaths in 1966. That is an horrendous statistic, bearing in mind the number of cars that were on the road then, compared with today. Much credit must be given to the successive Governments and road safety Ministers who have achieved this progress, but there is more to be done. My view is that there should be no target other than a zero target, because one road death is one too many. I do not find much cause for rejoicing in saying, “Only 120 children got killed last year, whereas it was 130 the previous year.” We need to drive down—literally drive down—the number of road deaths.
I pay special tribute to the new road safety Minister, who yesterday graciously spent nearly an hour with me and two constituents, Mr. and Mrs. Bell, whose only child Jordan, aged 14, was killed in a road crash in my
constituency by someone driving at more than 30 mph in a 30 limit; his alcohol content was marginally below the legal maximum of 80 mg per 100 ml. The petition that my constituents presented is intended to get that limit down to 50 mg, which I believe is not an unreasonable target. Even that would be higher than it is in Sweden, which shares with Britain the best record in the world for reducing road deaths. If we must have targets, these are targets that we can be proud of, as we have done more than any country in the world apart from Sweden to reduce road deaths, and Sweden has a much lower drink-drive limit than us. If we could get it down to 50 mg, we could all be proud of it, and my constituents Mr. and Mrs. Bell would certainly feel that some good had come of their tragedy.
There are other important issues. We need to invest in road safety in order to prevent road deaths and serious injuries, which—never mind the human tragedy—are a considerable cost to the economy. I have visited hospitals and seen people who have been involved in road crashes on life-support machines, so I know about the trauma and tragedy that goes with that. We need to persuade the Treasury that having traffic-calming measures outside schools and carrying out road safety measures will actually save the public purse in the long run.
I drew to the attention of the road safety Minister only yesterday—I do so again to the House this afternoon—that on a side road by a school in Westminster there is a school safety sign the like of which I have not seen anywhere else in the country. The school sign is painted on the highway itself, so a motorist who cannot see a sign on a post will be able to see it on the road surface—unless we have snow, of course, which is unlikely at this time of year. For most of the year, that road sign is there in paint on the highway. A few weeks ago, when I was in glorious Derbyshire, I found another type of school safety sign in Chesterfield that I would like the Department for Transport to introduce elsewhere. It flashes at school arrival and departure times, not only to indicate the school but to introduce a 20 mph speed limit during those periods. Those two measures alone would be very useful, especially if we could join them together.
I am one of only a few people who are fans of speed cameras. I remember discussing speed cameras in connection with an earlier transport Bill. The right hon. Member for Norwich, South (Mr. Clarke), then a Home Office Minister, was the nice guy and the other Minister, Mr. Paul Boateng, was the not-so-nice guy. The right hon. Member for Norwich, South assured me that speed cameras were a road safety device, not a revenue generator—and I hope that remains the case. Since then, other cameras have been introduced that flash up the relevant speed limit—30 mph, 40 mph or whatever. I suggest that what we need is a hybrid camera—one that states whatever the speed limit is, but also imposes a fine if a driver exceeds that limit. The technology is there; it is just a question of putting the two cameras on the same pole.
The hon. Member for Carlisle drew attention to the need for better design of our country roads. I should like the Minister to discuss with his colleagues the A140 north of Ipswich, which extends through Suffolk into Norfolk and up to Norwich—a place that I may visit more frequently in the next few weeks, but which I already visit on a regular basis.
The A140 features regularly on regional television. We frequently learn that there has been another crash, that the road is closed, that people have been killed. The road itself is not unsafe. We know that crashes are caused by drivers, not by roads. However, if roads were better engineered, and if the various hazards were engineered out, there would be fewer road crashes—Members will note that I never use the word “accident”—fewer injuries on the roads, and fewer fatalities. Obviously the A140 is not the only road to which that applies; it applies to roads all over the country. I have cited it because it is the main road link between Ipswich and Norwich, and the road that my constituents in north Essex use to travel to Norfolk.
Let me say something about traffic calming and reducing speed limits. Until I had a taster session with the Colchester branch of the Institute of Advanced Motorists I was the world’s best driver, but I quickly realised that there was a lot to learn. I took the full course, and finally passed the IAM test. I learnt two things: that, as the hon. Member for Carlisle suggested, the speed limit should be dropped by 10 mph; and that a driver should keep space between his car and the vehicle in front of it. Those two simple measures alone would result in a huge reduction in the number of road crashes, deaths and injuries.
There is a pressing case in our urban areas for 20 mph zones—not just on new estates, where that is often already the case, but in established areas. I am pleased to say that many years ago, when I was a local councillor, my badgering led to the introduction of the first 20 mph speed limit in Essex, in a Victorian-Edwardian high-density residential area. Twenty miles per hour is more than fast enough in most of our residential suburbs. We need more of those speed limits, and I urge the Government to press on. We have a proud record in forcing down the number of road deaths, but more can be achieved. I believe that with all-party support it can be achieved, but the Treasury must realise that, although investment costs money, saving lives saves the public purse a lot of money as well.
5.2 pm
Norman Baker (Lewes) (LD): We are debating an important subject, and although this is the fag end of a Thursday afternoon, it is disappointing that only 10 Members are present—including the umpire and two linesmen, if I may use a Wimbledon analogy this week. However, that has allowed the House to experience the undoubted pleasure of hearing two successive Liberal Democrat speakers.
I agree with what was said by both the Chairman of the Transport Committee, the hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside (Mrs. Ellman), and the hon. Member for Carlisle (Mr. Martlew) about the way in which the press and other media portray accidents on the road, as opposed to the railways or, indeed, any other mode of transport. The hon. Member for Carlisle mentioned Grayrigg; he could have also referred to Hatfield. I gather that, notwithstanding the significant loss of life in that terrible railway accident, more people in the United Kingdom died on the roads that weekend.
It is also true that railway accidents such as those are thankfully very unusual. However, they skew public perceptions, and they also skew Government policy.
The Government of the day are under tremendous pressure to “make the railways safer”, but the railways are terribly safe. We end up spending unnecessary amounts on improving an already safe record on the railways and not improving safety on the roads, where, by and large, the deaths occur. It is a case of complacency, not so much on the part of the Government or even the House as on the part of our friends in the media, who tend to report the unusual rather than the everyday. Health is an example: they are all very interested in swine flu but not particularly interested in heart disease or cancer, which are the big killers in our society. There is a need for perspective to be brought into the reporting of these matters and into the Government policy that ensues.
Mr. David Drew (Stroud) (Lab/Co-op): I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way and I apologise for not being here for the start of the debate. As a cyclist, one of the things that really bugs me is the continuing use of mobile phones by a small number of recidivist motorists. The media should show these people up, because the lack of attention shown by someone driving who is on a mobile phone will cause accidents. Does he agree that it is shameful that the media will not take up that issue?
Norman Baker: I agree, and my colleagues have collected some figures on the continuing breaking of the law. I hope that, as with drink driving over the last 20 or 30 years, such activity will become socially unacceptable and the number of people engaging in it will gradually diminish. The reports of what some people do while driving astonish me, whether it is drying their hair or engaging in something far more interesting but definitely unsafe on the roads. We need to get people to take their driving more seriously. [ Interruption. ] I was being very diplomatic there, Madam Deputy Speaker. I hope you realise that; more details can be given subsequently if you need to know what I am referring to.
The Select Committee report is helpful in highlighting a number of key issues, and it is good news that the number of people killed on Britain’s roads in 2007 was down; as my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Bob Russell) said, it fell below 3,000 for the first time since 1926. If one looks at the Government’s road safety targets, from their 2000 paper “Tomorrow’s roads: safer for everyone”, one sees that, by and large, they are on track in terms of the reductions of deaths and serious accidents set out in that paper. To be fair to the Government, they have achieved a good deal in this area—credit where it is due. That is not to say that sufficient has been done. We all, including the Minister, want to see the figures reduced further.
The question is whether the figures are accurate, and the Chairman of the Select Committee referred to that in her opening comments. Recommendation 4 of the report referred to STATS19, and I note that the Government say in their reply that a review of that is being carried out now. It is important that we get the figures right, but there appears to be a lack of correlation between the official figures and what hospital data show, which suggests that the figures are not always accurate. We all know from our constituencies that what are called “minor accidents” nevertheless cause injury on many occasions but are not actually reported because people sort things out and deal with the insurance companies themselves, without the police being called.
The police are to some extent backing off road issues in a way that I do not always find entirely helpful. They backed off on parking; it has become decriminalised in many areas and, where it is not, the police are still backing off. To some extent the police are backing off on speed enforcement. They are relying on cameras at key locations to pick up those who are speeding. They assume that those cameras are covering the worst areas and many forces are not policing outside those areas. That is a worry.
Mr. Goodwill: Could another reason for that “backing off” be that we have had a 20 per cent. reduction in the number of traffic police over the last 10 years and that drink driving is no longer a key performance indicator for police forces?
Norman Baker: There is undoubtedly a case as to how the police are asked to prioritise their time. I do not want to go too far down that track, Madam Deputy Speaker, as this is not a police debate, but any element of the public sector—whether it is the police or local councils—will respond to the target-driven culture that we now have. If those targets are accurately and sensibly chosen, that can be productive. Sometimes targets that are chosen end up with peculiar and distorting results. Some police forces have sought to increase the number of crimes detected in order to get their figures looking better, although the crimes they detect are sometimes very minor. They are not spending their time looking at more serious crimes about which the public are more worried. There can be that distortion, therefore.
Drink-driving has been mentioned by several Members, and it is undoubtedly a serious issue. My gut feeling is that while it has became socially unacceptable over the past 30 or 40 years—we have come a long way from “one for the road,” which is how things were back then—that good work is beginning to be unpicked a bit. The old ways are creeping back again, and people are beginning to think, “Well, we’ll just chance it.” That might be because either the consequences are diminishing or the horror adverts are not on television as much as they used to be, or perhaps because the fear of being caught, which is always a main driver—no pun intended—in deterring people, has lessened because they do not think they will be stopped by the police. However, the fact is that 16 per cent. of all road deaths involve a drink-driver; that is a 2007 figure. To pick up on a point made by the Committee Chairman, the hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside, drivers aged between 17 and 19 are 10 times more likely to have a drink-drive crash than drivers of other ages. Just for clarity, let me say that earlier I was not necessarily advocating an increase in the driving age to 18; I was merely genuinely asking about the Committee’s view on the matter, because there is a legitimate discussion to be had on it.
I believe there is a strong case for the drink-drive limit to be reduced from 80 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood to 50 mg. International comparisons reveal that our limit is shared by Ireland, Luxembourg and Malta, but the 0.5 mg per ml limit is much more common across Europe: it is the limit for Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. That is where the centre of gravity lies across the European Union—and some countries even have a lower limit than 0.5.
Mr. Martlew: I looked into this, too, and the hon. Gentleman is right, but does he realise that in a lot of the countries he mentioned there is no driving ban? Instead there is a fine, or perhaps a few points. Is it not better to have a higher level and a draconian punishment than to go the French way of reducing the level but only giving a fine?
Norman Baker: I do not advocate the view that people should face only a fine for what is a serious offence, but I think the 0.8 limit is too high, as some individuals can be within the limit yet their driving capacity is still impaired. I also do not think it is sensible policy that if someone is marginally above 0.8 they will face what the hon. Gentleman calls a draconian ban, whereas if they are just below that 0.8 limit they will not face any penalty whatever. That seems to me to be a rather extreme situation. I think there is a case for looking at this again, therefore, and I believe that 0.5 would be a sensible limit. That would allow someone who is going to drive to have one drink; after all, people who are driving should not have any more than that.
There is also an issue to do with drug-driving. As the Minister will know, a recent survey by Brake found that one in 10 young drivers has driven under the influence of drugs. The Government recently announced that they are creating a specification for a roadside drugs test, which is very welcome. However, as my hon. Friend the Member for Cheadle (Mark Hunter) said last month, it was stated in a parliamentary answer to a question he asked in February 2008 that
“departmental advisers were continuing their work to produce such a specification and...hoped to reach a conclusion soon.”—[ Official Report, 4 June 2009; Vol. 493, c. 147WH.]
That was said well over a year ago now, so it would be very welcome if the Minister could give us an update on the matter.
There is also the problem of uninsured drivers, as Members have mentioned. Uninsured drivers kill four people on our roads every week and were responsible in 2006 for 36,000 crashes and 27,000 injuries. However, the average fine for uninsured driving has fallen by 13 per cent. since 1997, from £224 to £194. That is much too low. As politicians, we cannot interfere with the courts, but I suggest to the Minister that either the minimum fine should be increased or some guidance should be issued by the relevant Law Officers to draw attention to this matter, because the cost of buying insurance is now often more than the fine for driving without insurance, and that is a nonsensical situation.
My next point relates to speeding. I believe that there is a case for a default 20 mph limit in concentrated urban areas. I use the word “default” because there may be cases—for example, on a bus route or a trunk road going through an urban area—where it is sensible to have a limit of 30 mph. A default 20 mph limit, especially on side roads, is a sensible safety measure. When I was a young lad we were able to go out playing in the streets. There used to be something called “safe streets”. That is what we used to have. I do not see children playing in the streets so much these days, and that is partly because they are not safe any more. We ought to do rather more to ensure that we make our residential areas safer for children. Whether they are playing or simply crossing
the road, they are not as safe as they could be at the moment. I am sure that we would all agree that there is nothing more tragic than a child being injured in a road accident.
Mr. Martlew: I think that the hon. Gentleman might be looking at the past with rose-tinted glasses. As a child, I used to play out on the street but I was badly injured in a road accident. It was probably more dangerous then than it is now.
Norman Baker: I am sorry about that particular accident, but I do not think I am looking at this with rose-tinted spectacles; there were fewer vehicles then for one thing. Irrespective of whether the past was better, however, I hope that the hon. Gentleman will agree that we need to do better in residential areas and a 20 mph limit may be one way forward.
My next point relates to shared streets and other measures that we can take to make our urban areas safer. I am very interested in the debate on shared streets and I have seen some of the examples, in the Netherlands and elsewhere, where road signs have been taken away altogether. Having too many road signs does not simply clutter up the country; it also switches drivers off, because if there are too many signs they do not notice any of them. We need to be rather cleverer about the use of signs. Taking away all indications from drivers as to where they are makes them slow down, because they consider whether they are in a pedestrian area or an area for cars, and what will happen around the corner. They drive more slowly and more safely as a result. A shared street is being introduced in Lewes. By the way, it has a little lip to help blind and visually-impaired people, for whom there is a genuine concern. It is not fully open yet, but I think it will be very effective in reducing traffic speeds along a busy road in Lewes.
My final point is that we need to have cycle tracks that are safe. This country has a high level of cycle ownership, but quite a low level of cycle usage. People often tell us that they do not feel that it is safe to cycle. On the continent there are far more dedicated cycleways and even in this country there is much heavier use of bicycles where towns and cities have identified dedicated cycle routes. This is good not only for people’s health, but for the environment, and it is also an important safety issue. It is not safe on our roads for cyclists when they are competing with lorries, as often happens on narrow roads. People want to be able to cycle safely and they are entitled to do so, and I think that the Government should generally be making more effort to promote cycling and make it safer in our urban areas.
5.17 pm
Mr. Robert Goodwill (Scarborough and Whitby) (Con): I congratulate the hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside (Mrs. Ellman), the Chair of the Select Committee, on its report. As a former member of the Committee, I know what good work it does and I remember with great affection her predecessor, Gwyneth Dunwoody, who always treated its members kindly—that generosity of spirit was not always extended to those hapless witnesses who gave evidence before us.
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