

Report Recommends New Safety Target
A specialist road traffic lawyer at Irwin Mitchell has backed an advisory body’s call for new targets on reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads.
In a new report for the RAC Foundation, the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (Pacts) has suggested that Westminster should create a new target for cutting the casualty rates by 50 per cent by 2020.
According to the executive director of Pacts, Robert Gifford, the move would help to reduce demand on the health service as well as ensure a continuing focus on road safety in the current economic climate.
Irwin Mitchell Partner Stephen Nye, who specialises in advising those who have suffered serious injuries in road traffic collisions, said: “The recommendations put forward by Pacts are an ambitious and positive step forward on the issue of road safety.
“We have continually called for improvements in standards, having seen so many of our clients suffer serious head trauma and other injuries in road accidents, which were entirely avoidable .
“New, strong targets like this will go some way to ensuring the message of road safety is fully promoted by local authorities and understood by drivers. This will hopefully lead to an increased level of safety awareness among motorists and a reduction in casualty numbers on our roads.”