The Department of Transport plan to unveil a new proposal to impose higher penalties on hasty British motorists who break the speed limit. Drivers will be banned after just two convictions if they exceed the speed limit by 15mph in urban areas or 25mph on motorways under a new restructuring of road safety laws... More...
Car tax seems to be one of the most common vagaries of 2008. To help demystify the new annual headache that is Vehicle Excise Duty, we have included a simple table below which helps assist you in working out your tax bill when renewing it in 2008-9... More...
Every month without fail horrendous central reservation cross-over stories are unfolding before our eyes. And all of them involve steel barrier employed as a safeguard between oncoming motorway and dual carriageway traffic. The sad truth is that steel may have once been a great cost effective method to help prevent cross over incidents, but the problem lies within the mission statement. It 'helps' but it does not 'stop'... More...
Motorists who cause fatalities by driving dangerously face up to 14 years in jail under new sentencing guidelines. Those who cause death when distracted by a mobile phone, especially if they drive while reading or writing text messages, should receive up to a seven year term, the Sentencing Guidelines Council said... More...
Whether you think boycotts, blockades or government petitions are the answer, there must be a way the average motorist can start making instant savings on petrol costs? Indeed there is - you can save the pounds in your pocket by conforming to these simple ideas listed below... More...
Every year there are some 200 accidents in the UK in which vehicles have breached the central reservation steel barrier. These crossover incidents result in an average fatality rate of 40 deaths per year and according to UK government figures, each fatality has a financial cost in excess of £1 million... More...
Why are we letting our government get away with charging so much tax on petrol and diesel fuels? Just when we get our heads around accepting the injustice that was £1.00 per litre of petrol, in the last two months we have been viciously assaulted on the forecourt with another £0.20p tax added per litre... More...
Accidents on the south Buckinghamshire stretch of the M40 have more than doubled since the year 2000, fire fighters revealed this week at the end of a shocking 12 months of tragedy. This month's newsletter delves into the motorway's 2007/08 reign of terror and asks why is this particular section of motorway so hazardous, and what can be done to put a stop to the accidents?... More...
British motorists are to be hit by new digital speed cameras that sneakily photograph on-coming vehicles without flashing, campaigners warned this month. One of the new cameras was unveiled on Friday 30th May, but promptly drew ridicule after being left pointing the wrong way... More...
Tens of thousands of cars will be reduced to nothing more than their scrap value now that Alistair Darling has decided to rip up the old car tax system and raise road tax on older car models with higher carbon dioxide emissions by up to £245 a year... More...
That's quite a score isn't it? Now convert these numbers into years and you have the life expectancy of Britain's biggest players in safety barriers. Yes, steel barriers need replacing after just 12 years whereas concrete step barriers last 40 years. Although the Government has now chosen to swap steel for concrete, the upgrading work of this every-day life saver is being criticised for being far too slow... More...
A staggering 34,000 people die on Russia's treacherous roads every year – ten times more than in the UK. This is particularly shocking when both countries have approximately the same number of vehicles on the road. Now, with the help of British firms, the Kremlin's long-term ambitions may finally be realised with plans set for a £250 billion road building programme... More...
Tens of thousands of cars will be reduced to nothing more than their scrap value now that Alistair Darling has decided to rip up the old car tax system and raise road tax on older car models with higher carbon dioxide emissions by up to £245 a year... More...
Did you ever hear the one about the lorry and the central reservation? Of course you did. Broken old record you're thinking. Indeed, tell it to the government. Month after month the case for concrete barrier gets stronger, due to the increasing number of accidents involving steel barrier. Just how many more cross-over accidents will it take before we see concrete barrier employed full-time as a safety measure on Britain's roads?... More...
Britain's badly maintained road network is costing drivers over £2.8 million a year on vehicle repairs according to an exhaustive survey by the insurance company Warranty Direct. The survey was based on over half a million cars both here and in America and the results are startling... More...
'The Fast and the Furious' So you occasionally drive a little over 70mph on the motorway? Maybe 80mph, but the road is empty and the sun is shining? Ah, you can simply ease on the brakes when you see the little orange camera? No one's going to stop you because 10mph over the limit is nothing compared to the maniacs on the urban roads, right?... More...
Congestion on our roads costs the economy something in the order of £7 billion to £8 billion a year. I reckon we can comfortably treble that figure since the statistics are based on very narrow and definable criteria... More...
The biggest reform of driver training for a generation, due to be announced this month, will force learners to have extra lessons and prove that they have acquired key skills before taking their practical driving test... More...
In 1997 John Prescott said “I will have failed if, in five years' time, there are not many more people using public transport - and far fewer journeys by car”. Well, here we are ten years on, double the time Prescott said he needed, and the situation is far worse than anyone could have ever imagined... More...
The first comprehensive assessment of the safety of individual roads and their ability to protect motorists in the event of a collision has been unveiled... More...
In the search for a safer road network, the emphasis tends to be on expensive hardware and complicated electronic solutions - but what if half the problem is with the software? Maybe the idiot behind the wheel is as much to blame as anything else for the poor safety record on Britain's roads... More...
Statistics from the DfT show that the travelling by motorbike is still the most dangerous way to get around Britain. The car driver is the safest, followed by the pedestrian, then comes the cyclist and in last place, by a flying mile, is the motorcyclist... More...
Foreign lorries are three times more likely to be involved in an accident on our roads than British lorries, according to a study by the Association of British Insurers. The alarming statistics show that the number of accidents involving Polish drivers has grown by tenfold between in the five years from 2001 to 2006... More...
Following a trial involving 11 miles of the M42 in Warwickshire, the government believe that using the hard-shoulder as a “fourth lane” can now be extended to other motorways without compromising safety... More...
Well, it's that time of year again - Wham!, Slade, Mariah Carey, bustling shopping centres and frozen windscreens. But there is some good news for all of our Christmas motorists attending their annual family shin-dig this year... More...
Boris Johnson and other Conservative Front-Benchers joined the growing list of people demanding to know why the M40 has not been given a higher profile for both better noise reduction and more concrete barrier... More...
Putting the clocks back from British Summer time (BST) to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) will cause 450 more accidents and means 104 more people will die on our roads, according to Cambridge University engineers... More...
Calls to lower the blood-alcohol limit for drivers from the current 80 ml/100ml to 50ml/100ml, should attract plenty of support, but claims that it would save 150 lives a year and a further 1,500 injuries are misplaced... More...
The average fine for being caught without car insurance is about half the cost of taking out a policy. Who says crime doesn't pay? The average fine is currently running at £169 while the average cost of third party car insurance is £370 a year... More...
These were the words of my nine year old son as we sped down the M40 the other day – and he is absolutely right. Whilst the government have spent millions on motorway widening schemes, all of the advantages of that extra tarmac are completely lost because drivers have totally given up on the concept of lane discipline... More...
A DVD which shows the enormous benefits of replacing steel barriers on Britain's motorways with concrete safety barrier has just been released. Lovers of Channel's 4's Fifth Gear will be delighted to see that the programme is presented by the lovely Vicki Butler-Henderson... More...
On Thursday 31st May, a flat-bed lorry travelling northbound on the M40 near Loudwater, crashed through the central reservation and collided with several vehicles travelling on the southbound carriageway. Three people were pronounced dead at the scene. Eleven other people were injured and major congestion spread across the entire region as the motorway remained closed for most of the day... More...
Calls to lower the blood-alcohol limit for drivers from the current 80 ml/100ml to 50ml/100ml, should attract plenty of support, but claims that it would save 150 lives a year and a further 1,500 injuries are misplaced... More...
30,000 motorists lost their licences in 2004 as a result of speed camera fines. When the figures for 2005 are eventually released by the Home Office (what do they use, an abacus?) no one is expecting a decrease in that number... More...
It's Bank Holiday season and, as usual, our road network struggles to cope. Well, let's be honest here, we all know it doesn't cope at all - once again it will be a nightmare for anyone making a journey this weekend... More...
Earlier this year, a survey by the IAM Trust showed that 66% of drivers use tyre pressure gauges and air pumps at petrol stations. Nothing in itself wrong with that except for the fact that the figures quoted for the tyre pressures in your vehicle handbook are for cold tyres, not warm or hot... More...
A DVD which shows the enormous benefits of replacing steel barriers on Britain's motorways with concrete safety barrier has just been released. Lovers of Channel's 4's Fifth Gear will be delighted to see that the programme is presented by the lovely Vicki Butler-Henderson... More...
Half the foreign lorries tested on British roads last year were found to have safety defects that were sufficiently serious to have a caused a crash, according to the latest research. Bearing it mind that each and every day there are around 12,000 foreign lorries on our roads, this is a very disturbing statistic... More...
Did you know that over 100,000 drivers locked themselves out of their own cars last year. Incredibly, 99% of the RAC's 1,650 patrol vehicles attended a lock-out in 2006, equating to an average 57 call out per patrol across the year... More...
What is the true cost of sitting in a traffic jam? What is the cost the individual ,what is the cost to the employer, and what is the cost to the UK economy?... More...
Motorists have named the worst ten roads in Britain and we are disappointed to see that no less than six of them are motorways. Fourteen per cent of motorists claim they have had an accident in the car because they have swerved to avoid a pot hole and another fourteen per cent say they have crashed the car as a direct result of the poor condition of the road... More...
After all the hard work and lobbying in 2006, we are delighted to now report that over 200 km of motorway steel central barrier will be replaced over the coming year with new concrete step barrier. The wait has been worth while and millions of drivers will now experience the benefits of this new technology... More...
One of the biggest problems we encounter in our quest for safety improvements on our roads is the issue of affordability. “It’s a great idea but we can’t afford it” is the usual retort. This always comes as something of a disappointment when we regularly see vast amounts of money spent on things we don’t always feel give us the best returns. As I drive along the M42 these days it is hard not to notice the millions of pounds that have been spent on overhead signage systems... More...
At last you can legally drive in the only traffic-free area you will ever find in the UK – yes, that’s right, the bus lane. However, there is one condition attached if you want to halve your journey time to work, and that is you must have at least one passenger on board... More...
Another fatal accident was reported in the Droitwich Advertiser last month as a result of a motorcyclist colliding with the steel barrier on the central reserve of the M42 near Birmingham. The motorcyclist and his passenger were thrown from the bike after one of the tyres suddenly deflated. The male motorcyclist died later in hospital and his female passenger was taken to hospital with shoulder and back injuries... More...
One of the biggest problems we encounter in our quest for safety improvements on our roads is the issue of affordability. “It’s a great idea but we can’t afford it” is the usual retort. This always comes as something of a disappointment when we regularly see vast amounts of money spent on things we don’t always feel give us the best returns... More...
It's that time of year again when every newsletter, email and envelope through the post contains seasons greetings from family, friends and businesses from across the world. We hope that our somewhat saucy and more light-hearted features this month demonstrate that at Safer Motorways we also have a lighter side... More...
In the UK we have decided that the best way of slowing down speeding motorists is to use cameras, fines and penalty points on your driving licence. Suffice to say it has not been popular with a lot of drivers, many of whom feel that it is merely a way of raising extra revenue for the exchequer... More...
Did you know that if you were to die on one of the UK's roads, the council in that area will judge the cost of your life against the cost of improving safety on that road? Did you also know that there is an actual figure for the cost of your life?... More...
During 2005, five workers were killed and 12 seriously injured in the course of their work on Highways Agency roads. This was the worst year for 5 years. For the safety of all road users and road workers, the Highways Agency advises all drivers approaching roadwork's to... More...
Every week we read stories of serious injury and death on our motorways. Every day motorists are caught up in long delays and traffic jams as a result of terrible accidents. We sigh in frustration and accept it as part of living in the 21st century. But in reality many of these deaths and injuries are totally avoidable. More...
On 18th September 2006, new child restraint laws came into place which could save up to 2,000 child deaths or injuries each year. But do you understand the new regulations? According to a new survey, only two thirds of mothers are aware of the new child seat laws. This lack of awareness is a sharp warning to the government that we are not all as clued up as we should be. More...
Shocking figures from the RAC today reveal that there are nine million illegal drivers on our roads. Considering that there are about 28 million motorists in Britain, this is an unbelievably high statistic that is bound to cause anger amongst law-abiding motorists. More...
Is this a simple solution to ease congestion on our motorways? “Only use the hard shoulder in an absolute emergency” is what we have always been told. However, latest findings this month in The Times show that the hard shoulder is likely to be used as an extra lane to prevent congestion, reduce accidents and save the enormous cost of building an additional carriageway. More...
‘Unsung heroes’ suffer abuse, violence and even death. When you think of accidents on the motorway you automatically think of injured motorists, but this is not always the case. New figures out this month show that the number of road workers reporting ‘near misses’ has increased dramatically. Figures show a total of 181 incidents were reported between January and July 2006 alone. More...
When the heavy goods vehicle in front of you crashes into the motorway central reservation and bursts into flames, you just know you are going to be late for your next appointment. More...
Well not actually on the main carriageway, but certainly part way down the entry slip roads. This is the idea behind an innovative new scheme to reduce congestion and improve traffic flow at some of our busiest motorway junctions. More...
We are all rightly concerned over the dangers of people driving while under the influence of alcohol but have you ever stopped to consider how many of your fellow road users may be driving just after taking illegal drugs? More...
On Britain’s motorways, vehicles running off the road cause one fifth of all deaths and serious injuries. Statistics released this week by the AA are the result of a five-year study into the safety of the entire British road network. The study, known as EuroRAP, reports on a great deal of improvement to the network but is unhappy that more isn’t being done to protect motorists. More...
As the Highway Code celebrates its 75th birthday, the RAC Foundation has carried out a study to find out how many of us actually remember what we learned from the little book all those years ago, when we first took our test. 80 per cent of people, myself included, confess to having never looked at the book since we passed. More...
Whilst your car may be protected by the latest door-lock technology, motion sensor alarm systems and state of the art satellite tracking devices, the only thing protecting your number plates is a couple of stainless steel screws or a bit of double sided tape. More...
Safer motorways supports the Highways Agency’s decision to replace the central reservation of the M6 in Staffordshire with the new concrete step barrier. This section of the M6 will be one of the first sections of motorway in the UK to have this new technology installed. More...
“I would like to die peaceful in my sleep like my grandad – not screaming hysterically like the passengers on his coach.” I think I heard this joke from Jack Dee, but apparently it is rather closer to the truth than we would all like to believe. More...
Over two thirds of UK drivers admit to "having a good look" at the scene of an accident and one in twenty drivers had an accident themselves as a direct result of participating in the ever popular sport of rubbernecking. More...
Using concrete safety barriers on motorways is a far safer and cost effective option than the traditional steel barrier we are used to seeing on the central reservation. More...
A brand new traffic centre, aimed at reducing traffic congestion on the M1 in Nottinghamshire, has just opened at a cost of £7.6 million pounds. Alistair Darling officially opened the Highways Agency’s East Midlands traffic control centre, which will be manned by around twenty-one patrol officers. More...
Should drivers who have just passed their driving test be allowed to drive on a motorway? How would you feel if you knew that the person overtaking you on the motorway in torrential rain or dense fog had never driven on a motorway before in their entire life?. More...
