Author:
ROBIN ROBERTS
England’s motorway network is not safe enough to have the speed limit raised to 80mph, according to Unfit for 80, a new report from the Road Safety Foundation.
Poorly-maintained and inadequate roadside protection and the rapidly rising risk of shunt crashes from the sheer volume of traffic using England’s motorways are key factors of safety concern in the report, which is published while the Government continues to consider a review of the motorway speed limit.
Last autumn, Philip Hammond, then Secretary of State for Transport, stated the Government’s desire to “make sure that our motorway speed limit reflects the reality of modern vehicles and driving conditions, not those of 50 years ago … we must consider the huge economic benefits that can be created by shortening journey times”. He promised formal proposals.
The Road Safety Foundation report finds that currently motorways do not provide enough protection to drivers and car occupants to consider raising the speed limit. In new research, it shows widespread faults in run-off protection which are doubling the rate of death and serious injury where there is missing protection. It shows shunt crashes rise exponentially with increased traffic flow, yet only a handful of motorway sections like the M25 and M42 have the electronic controls with hazard warning and variable speed limits that are needed to manage the intense flows common across England’s motorways.
Director of the Road Safety Foundation, Dr Joanne Marden, who oversaw the new research, says: “The vehicle fleet has become safer in the last decade through better crash protection. At motorway speeds, the car alone cannot protect the human body. The car has to work with the motorway’s protection systems such as safety fencing to absorb high speed crash energies. In the next decade, the greatest potential for reducing deaths is on higher-speed roads outside built-up areas. This will be delivered through crash avoidance technology and road engineering catching up to complement improved vehicle crash protection.”
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