Following an announcement that parliament are considering doubling driving licence penalty points from 3 to 6 for using a mobile phone, a new survey of 1000 UK adults by intelligentcarleasing.com paints a revealing picture of mobile phone usage while driving. The question posed to individuals was ‘Have you held a mobile phone whilst driving in the last 30…
I know, I can’t quite believe it either. In fact I have read the statistics from the RAC over and over again and I still can’t believe it! Apparently, the single biggest item of household expenditure in the UK is now transport. Forget the four million households we keep hearing about that spend more than 10% of their…
The UK’s “FM Switch off”, current best guess around 2015, could mean that 80% of cars on the roads today would have radios that no longer work. These cars are known in the industry as ‘legacy cars” and risk being left without any signal when the switch-off finally takes place. That date is rapidly approaching as we enter…
It has been announced that driving under the influence of drugs is now to be added to the list of things that a motorist can be prosecuted for. Most people welcomed the news, imagining that the sight of some “coke-head” bearing down in their rear view mirror is not in their best interests – and they are probably…
Last month was a very sad month for UK motorists with one of the worst motorway accidents in the country’s history. The multiple pile up on the M5 resulted in the death of seven. Safer Motorways have long held the M5 is one of the UK’s most dangerous motorways and we continue to lobby for improvements and safety…
The Department for Transport has announced a revolution in the way motorway accidents are recorded – and for once it is great news for motorists. Anyone who has ever been stuck on a motorway following an accident will have shouted in desperation “Why don’t you just push all the wreckage onto the hard shoulder and get the traffic…
Yesterday 3,500 people around the world were violently killed in road accidents. And the same number died the day before that ….. and the day before that. Globally, the statistics for road deaths are horrendous. In fact, someone dies in a road accident every six seconds. Yet despite this, road injury and death remains an ignored subject. Nine…
Potholes in the UK road network now cost UK drivers over £500 million pounds a year. That’s not a typo – five hundred million pounds. You could be forgiven for thinking the council workers who reject the endless flow of claims from disgruntled motorists are running a chain of tyre depots across the country. If you haven’t suffered…
Do you listen to football matches on the radio whilst driving? If so your insurance company may well be interested. You will be amazed to hear that football goals are the cause of around half a million car crashes or near misses every year. Apparently, motorists who hear their team score a goal on the radio whilst driving…
The state of the road infrastructure in the UK has got noticeably worse over the last two years and potholes have become a major problem for drivers in many counties. In Buckinghamshire, the council website which lets motorists report serious potholes, now has comments like “This road is so bad it would be easier to tell you where…
On one of the busiest traveling weekends of the year the M25 was closed after a lorry hit the central reservation on Friday evening. The lorry load of aluminium bars were thrown into the path of oncoming traffic on the opposite carriageway. Three people were injured, one critically – amazingly no one was killed. Traffic jams extended for…
Every day, four people are killed or seriously injured in accidents involving young motorists, a recent study has revealed. Whilst driving accidents in general are on the decline in the UK, it is somewhat surprising to discover that crashes involving young drivers are on the increase. Why is that? The most likely reason is simply one of inexperience…
Three recent crossover incidents on the M5, in which vehicles have smashed through the central barrier into oncoming traffic on the opposite carriageway, have left three people dead. Over the last few years, Safer Motorways has worked desperately hard to put this issue on the public agenda. Our reasoning is simple. First of all these deaths are completely…
Two women were killed when a lorry traveling northbound on the M5 smashed through the steel barrier on the central reserve and hit their Mercedes car traveling in the opposite direction. The incident happened near Frankley, in the west Midlands, between junctions 3 and 4 at around 11.40am on the 13th May 2011. The motorway was closed in…
We have always thought it bizarre that a soldier killed in Afghanistan gets front-page news and often the lead story on national television – but the same soldier killed on a motorway accident driving back to his barracks whilst on leave in the UK, wouldn’t make a single national newspaper. Not one. The question that must be asked…
The never ending rise in petrol prices have now resulted in a massive reduction in the number of drivers on the road. Traffic has slumped by almost 20 per cent according to figures released last week by the government and that figure is expected to rise even higher as fuel price increases show no sign of letting up….
A quick test for you. Was the photograph on the left taken in Nigeria, Cyprus or the UK? Yes you guessed it – it’s right here in the UK, at junction 22 of the M5 to be precise. We understand from the Department for Transport that ALL safety barrier in the UK satisfies European Standards – in this…
A 32-ton lorry has crashed through the central reservation of the A4 near Chiswick earlier this week killing a Japanese businessman traveling by taxi to London. Two Japanese colleagues traveling with the victim, and the taxi driver, were also injured in the accident. It is understood that two other vehicles were also involved as the lorry, loaded with…
Experts believe that it would take an initial investment of £1.4 billion and annual ongoing costs of less than half a billion pounds to keep Britain’s planes, trains and road infrastructure operational whatever the weather conditions. If that sounds expensive, consider this. The cost to the UK economy of NOT spending this money is estimated at £1.2 billion…
This week’s competition is to estimate the REAL cost of a motorway accident like the one shown above. Not a significant accident that would make it on to News At Ten you understand. Just a bog-standard everyday kind of motorway smash that we have all got used to in this country. In fact, accidents like this happen every…
