Rodger Charlton and Gary Smith made numerous important and useful points in their editorial (October 2003 JRSM1) but it was disappointing to see them fail to give credit to what has actually been achieved in reducing the number of casualties from road traffic accidents. They have overlooked the point that, in about thirty years during which there has been an enormous increase in the number of vehicles and the number of miles travelled, road deaths have actually been halved in the UK. This has been achieved by a combination of the drink-drive laws, the use of seat belts, improved vehicle design and more motorways, as well as traffic calming and control. It is wrong to give the impression that an increasing toll of road casualties is being ignored.
Unfortunately, in their suggestions to improve the situation further, the authors omitted to mention that pedestrians and cyclists are not subject to the drink-drive legal limit and cannot be breath-tested, and whilst criticizing the use of mobile telephones did not at the same time point out the dangers of selecting, lighting and smoking cigarettes or of using visual display panels associated with tracking devices.
The fact that progress is still being made in road safety is evident from the latest figures which show that there was a 3% reduction in road casualties between 2001 and 2002 whilst the reduction in road deaths was 19%. There is certainly still a great deal that can be done, but please give credit to those people who have worked hard for many years to bring about substantial improvements.
References
- 1.Charlton R, Smith G. How to reduce the toll of road traffic accidents. J R Soc Med 2003;96: 475-6 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]