Press Release

March 2008

Lessons from 50,000 deaths:

the 15^th anniversary conference by RoadPeace on 7 April in Westminster will consider the improvements in the response to road death and injury made over this period, and those yet to be made

The conference, at which the keynote address is given by the Mayor of London, will be held at Church House, Dean's Yard, SW1P 3NZ, from 9.30am - 4.30pm

During the 15 years in which RoadPeace has been supporting road crash victims and campaigning for a proper post crash response, over 50,000 people have died on UK roads and hundreds of thousands have been injured. The bereaved and injured victims demand that lessons are learnt from those deaths and injuries, so that their loss and suffering were not entirely in vain.

New prosecution policies, investigation manuals and road traffic legislation - these all suggest or promise improvements in how road death and injury will be treated by the justice sector in future. Yet with 43 independent police forces and more than twice as many independent coroners, road crash victims are expected to suffer a post code lottery service, with more losers than winners.

There is also well founded concern that while greater priority is given to fatal crash investigations and prosecutions, injury collision investigations - even when serious injuries are involved, are far less satisfactory, with consequently few prosecutions brought in injury cases.

Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, who is opening the conference, said:

London's roads must still be made safer for all who use them, and I make it my goal to do everything in my power to reduce at least the death toll to as close as possible to zero. Regarding treatment of victims - I fully support RoadPeace's call for a proper response by the authorities to those deaths and injuries on the road that could not be prevented, and for a decent treatment of affected families.

Amy Aeron-Thomas, Executive Director of RoadPeace said:

RoadPeace is calling for minimum national standards and consistent implementation of laws and regulations. We are also calling for Britain to adopt a strict liability law in respect of damages claims, in line with many other European countries, where motorists are assumed to be liable for any injury to a pedestrian or cyclist, unless they can prove their innocence. In view of so few injury cases involving a criminal prosecution, adoption of the strict liability law would at least ensure civil justice for injured victims.

Brigitte Chaudhry, RoadPeace Founder, said:

It is on one hand depressing that after 15years of sacrifices and struggles by so many of us at RoadPeace, there is still so much to be done, but on the other there is also cause to be proud of what we have achieved - namely that the issues of road death, road injury and road victim treatment are firmly on the political agenda, from which they cannot ever be removed.

Contact details:

Amy Aeron-Thomas 07905 847 917

RoadPeace office 020 8838 5102

Brigitte Chaudhry 020 8964 1800

Notes to editors:

1. Journalists are invited to attend. Interviews with speakers can be arranged.
2. Key speakers include:
   • Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London
   • Bob Russell MP (Chairman All Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Road Traffic Victims)
   • Dr Frank Pike of the National Policing Improvement Agency
   • Simon Labbett of the Transport Research Laboratory
   • Norwich and Norfolk Coroner William Armstrong
   • Mark Donkin and Dan Jones - Crown Prosecution Service
   • Elliott Griffiths, Magistrates Association
   • Kevin McCormac, Sentencing Guidelines Secretariat
   • Justin Jacobs, Association of British Insurers
   • Jo Best, July 7^th Assistance Centre
   • John Stewart (Chair Campaign for Better Transport, former Transport 2000)
   • The Police are represented by: DCS Mark Smith and Inspector Andy Nelson
   • Personal Injury Lawyers are represented by: Colin Ettinger (Senior Fellow APIL), John Pickering (Chair PEOPIL) - both from Irwin Mitchell, Paul McNeil of Field Fisher Waterhouse,and Penny Knight of Leigh Day & Co
3. Each day, 9 people die on Britain's roads: On whatever day you are reading this, it is the day on which nine families will be changed forever by the news that a loved one is not coming home.
4. 1 in 15 children will die or be injured in road traffic crashes
5. Road crashes are the leading cause of death and acquired disability in the UK. They are the single biggest killer of young men. A person is killed by gun crime less than once a week, while a road death occurs every three hours.
6. RoadPeace was set up in 1992 to meet the overwhelming need for a national charity to provide support for road crash victims. RoadPeace supports people who are bereaved or injured by road crashes, campaigns for justice for crash victims, promotes public awareness of the dangers of negligent and reckless driving and works with Government and relevant agencies to make roads safer for all users.
7. The annual global road death toll is 1.3million - this equals 3,600 people killed every day! Between 50 to100 million people are injured each year. These terrible statistics are forecast to worsen in the next decade. On 11 March 2008, the BBC World Service broadcast a 2-hour programme on the topic - Are cars the killers we tolerate?- with guest contributors Prof John Adams of UCL and Brigitte Chaudhry as president of the European Federation of Road Traffic Victims, FEVR.