The Parliamentary Advisory Council on Transport Safety (PACTS) recently held a conference in London to examine how road traffic collisions could be better investigated and called for the Government to setup a body similar to those used in air, rail and maritime industries to investigate the underlying cause of road accidents. PACTS are seeking an amendment to the Vehicle Technology and Aviation Bill to pave the way for the new body.
The reason for this call is that the UK has an excellent record in investigating road collisions but investigations are fragmented and inconsistent across the country. PACTS believe that we need to learn from the air, rail and maritime spheres how to investigate incidents to harness new technical opportunities and to bring together the efforts of researchers, police, coroners, local authorities and others.
In both the air accident and rail accident investigation branches and in maritime industries it is a legal requirement for operators to report incidents. This is not the case in the main for road incidents. Where it is mandatory is under the Health and Safety at Work legislation where a vehicle is being used for work purposes, even if this is grey fleet, and under the Operator Licensing regime for goods and passenger vehicles.
The idea that the branch could investigate each and every collision is unachievable but what is being proposed is that this new branch could investigate the most serious ones and those where lessons in prevention repetition could be learned. The aim is to learn and would support, and not replace, the crucial work of existing police collision investigators whose prime area of work is to look at whether offences have been committed.
In 2015, 1,730 people died in road collisions, far more than in rail, air and maritime incidents, and since 2010 the reduction of fatal collisions has slowed and the level of deaths has levelled off. The EU under the General Safety Directive as currently proposed would require ‘black boxes’ to be fitted to all new vehicles to allow data to be secured in relation to any collisions.
Details of the conference can be seen at www.pacts.org.uk/2017/01/pacts-conference
Graham Ellis
Proprietor
Transport Stationery Services/Ellis Transport Services
