Road Safety Week: Protecting those most vulnerable on our roads

Working with seriously injured people and bereaved families, as a serious injury lawyer I see the consequences when vulnerability is overlooked. 

Road Safety Week highlights that vulnerability. Brake’s theme, “Safe People on the Move”, reflects a central Highway Code principle: those who can cause the greatest harm have the greatest responsibility to protect others.

The hierarchy of road users

Introduced in 2022, the Highway Code’s hierarchy recognises our shared responsibility for safety, but differing capacities to cause harm.

Rule H1 of the Highway Code places the greatest responsibility on those driving vehicles with the greatest potential to cause harm, while recognising that all road users have a part to play in keeping others safe.

The hierarchy and civil liability

Vulnerability alone does not determine fault. Each civil claim turns on evidence, including speed, observation, road positioning and whether a driver should reasonably have anticipated another road user.

When assessing contributory negligence, courts consider blameworthiness and causative potency—how much each party’s conduct contributed to the damage suffered. A moving vehicle and an unprotected person have different potential to cause serious injury. A pedestrian’s mistake does not necessarily carry the same weight as a driver’s.

The hierarchy does not replace that analysis, but reinforces a key point: shared responsibility does not necessarily mean equal responsibility.

Vulnerability takes different forms

Pedestrians have effectively no physical protection. Children, older people and disabled people may face additional challenges judging speed, crossing roads or being seen.

Cyclists face risks at junctions and from vehicles turning across their path. Motorcyclists can travel at similar speeds to other vehicles, without a car’s protective structure. The Highway Code reminds drivers to look out for both at junctions, roundabouts and when changing direction or lane.

Buses and HGVs: A greater potential for harm?

Buses and HGVs are essential, but their size and weight can make collisions devastating. Restricted visibility near the front and sides demands care when turning or moving off.

A blind spot should prompt questions: what could the driver see, what checks were made and how was the manoeuvre carried out? For me, a blind spot should never end the conversation about what happened. Understanding what could have been seen, and what precautions were taken, matters both to families seeking an explanation and to preventing similar collisions.

Operators’ responsibilities include training, maintenance, safer vehicle design and effective use of mirrors, cameras and detection systems. Technology cannot replace careful observation and safe driving.

The human consequences of road collisions

A collision lasting seconds can cause brain or spinal cord injury, amputation, fractures or psychological injuries, with potentially lifelong consequences. Work, independence, relationships and family life can change. Families may become carers overnight, alongside hospital visits, rehabilitation and uncertainty. The consequences extend beyond the injured person. Family members may find themselves balancing new caring responsibilities with work and everyday commitments, while adjusting to a future very different from the one they had planned.

For bereaved families, loss reaches into everyday routines, shared plans and moments together. They face a future without someone they love. The practical demands that follow a death do not pause for grief, and families may need support long after the immediate aftermath. Alongside grief, they may be seeking answers while managing practical and financial uncertainty. That experience must not be lost in discussions about rules and responsibility.

No legal process can undo that loss, but we can listen and help families navigate what follows with clear advice and practical guidance. For those living with serious injuries, support may also include access to rehabilitation, care and adaptations to rebuild everyday life.

Those human consequences must remain central to road safety, and to the everyday decisions that can help prevent another family experiencing them.

Turning the Highway Code into everyday behaviour

Putting the hierarchy into practice means anticipating cyclists and motorcyclists at junctions, allowing sufficient overtaking space and giving way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross the road you are turning into or out of. Speed must allow time to see, assess and respond.

Protection must also shape road design, infrastructure, education, enforcement and collision investigations.

Nor are road users competing groups. Someone driving to work may walk to the shops or cycle at weekends. Most of us move around the hierarchy; framing safety as drivers versus cyclists or pedestrians misses that reality.

A responsibility to protect

Road Safety Week reminds us to anticipate risk and recognise when others are more exposed, not simply respect priority. The greater our capacity to cause harm, the greater our responsibility to prevent it.

An ordinary journey should not end in life-changing injury or bereavement. Knowing who is most vulnerable matters; what we do to protect them matters more.

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