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Q1) How many people are killed or injured on our roads each year?

Q2) What are the major contributory factors to accidents?

Q3) How many casualities occurred when someone was driving whilst over the legal alcohol limit?

Q4) What percentage of cars, vans and passenger vehicles with up to 12 seats failed their initial MoT test in 2010/11?

Q5) What were the 3 main causes for cars, vans and passenger vehicles with up to 12 seats failing their initial MoT tests in 2010/11?

Q6) Which are the most dangerous roads in the country?

Q7) How is the safety of cars assessed?

Q8) What is Electronic Stability Control?

Q9) What is Intelligent Speed Adaptation?

Q10) Would moving to Single/Double Summer Time reduce road casualties?

Q11) Should I refresh my memory of the Highway Code?

Q12) How can I prepare for winter driving conditions?

A1) The number of people killed in road accidents reported to the police fell by 17 per cent from 2,222 in 2009 to 1,850 in 2010. This is the lowest figure since national records began in 1926. Just under half (45 per cent) of all fatalities were car occupants, while pedestrians and motorcyclists each accounted for just over a fifth (22 per cent).

A total of 22,660 people were seriously injured (8 per cent less than in 2009) and 184,138 slightly injured (6 per cent less than in 2009).

Source: Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain: 2010 Annual Report

The latest estimates - Reported Road Casualties in GB: Quarterly Provisional Estimates Q3 2011 - show that 1,900 people were killed and 24,430 killed or seriously injured in reported road accidents in the year ending September 2011. This represents a fall of less than 0.5% for fatalities and a fall of 4 per cent for fatal and seriously injured casualties compared to the previous 12 month period.

A2) Failed to look properly was the most frequently reported contributory factor and was reported in 40 per cent of all accidents reported to the police in 2010. Four of the five most frequently reported contributory factors involved driver or rider error or reaction. For fatal accidents the most frequently reported contributory factor was loss of control, which was involved in 34 per cent of fatal accidents.

Exceeding the speed limit was reported as a factor in 5 per cent of accidents, but these accidents involved 14 per cent of fatalities. At least one of exceeding the speed limit and travelling too fast for the conditions was reported in 12 per cent of all accidents and these accidents accounted for 24 per cent of all fatalities.

Pedestrian failed to look properly was reported in 60 per cent of accidents in which a pedestrian was injured or killed, and pedestrian careless, reckless or in a hurry was reported in 25 per cent.

In April 2011, the Institute of Advanced Motorists published a report analysing the factors contributing to road accidents.

A3) It is estimated that in 2010, 9,700 reported casualties (5 per cent of all road casualties) occured when someone was driving whilst over the legal alcohol limit.

The provisional number of people estimated to have been killed in drink drive accidents fell by 35 per cent from 380 in 2009 to 250 in 2010, whilst seriously injured casualties fell by 18 per cent from 1490 to 1230. Slight casualties resulting from drink and drive accidents fell by 19 per cent from 10,150 to 8,220.

Source: Drinking and Driving 2010

A4) 39.8 per cent of vehicles failed their initial MoT test. Full details can be viewed here.

A5) The 3 main causes for vehicles failing their initial MoT were were lighting and signalling defects (28.6 per cent of defects), brakes (17.9 per cent of defects) and suspension (16.9 per cent of defects).

A6) The European Road Assessment Programme is an association of motoring organisations, national and regional road authorities and experts that aims to reduce death and serious injuries on Europe’s roads and make those that do occur survivable. It does this by assessing roads to show how well the road would protect life in the event of an accident.

The organisation publishes a map showing the statistical risk of death or serious injury occurring on Britain’s motorways and A roads. The risk is calculated by comparing the frequency of death and serious injury on every stretch of road with how much traffic each road is carrying.

The joint report of the RAC Foundation and the Road Safety Foundation - Saving Lives, Saving Money - highlights that 6,000 lives could be saved on Britain's roads over the next 10 years by bringing main roads with safety flaws such as missing safety fencing and unsafe junction layouts up to safety levels that should reasonably be expected.

A7) New cars are rated by the independent European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) which was established in 1997 and has the current backing of seven European governments and the European Commission, as well as motoring and consumer organisations in every European country.

Vehicles made before 2009 were given three separate star ratings, to indicate how they performed in a crash when it came to adult occupant protection, child occupant protection and pedestrian protection.

From 2009 all vehicles now receive a single star rating (out of five) which encompasses the three existing test areas, plus a fourth area - additional technologies designed to promote safe driving. This includes such technology as Electronic Stability Control and speed limiters.

The Euro NCAP site contains a wealth of information about cars’ comparative safety.

A8) Electronic Stability Control (ESC) is a system that when it detects a loss of steering control, automatically applies the brakes to help manoeuvre the vehicle where the driver intends to go. Braking is automatically applied to individual wheels depending on the situation.

ESC normally consists of the electronic systems of traction control and ABS using several sensors such as steering wheel angle sensor, yaw rate sensor, lateral acceleration sensor and wheel speed sensor to monitor the vehicle’s direction of travel and the driver’s intended course. ESC cannot be retrofitted and needs to be fitted before sale.

A9) Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) is a system that compares the local speed limit to the vehicle speed. The system can then (i) advise the driver when the vehicle is found to be exceeding the speed limit with an audible and/or visual warning (advisory ISA); (ii) control maximum speed through an overridable system where the driver can choose to override the speed limiting function and regain full manual control until a new speed limit is encountered and/or the road speed drops beneath the current speed limit at which time ISA regains control (overridable ISA) and; (iii) control maximum speed through a mandatory speed limiting function that the driver cannot override (mandatory ISA).

A10) The evidence suggests that there would be reduced road casualties if we adjusted British clocks to Single/Double Summer Time.(This would put clocks one hour ahead of GMT in winter and two in summer).The Department for Transport reported in a consultation document it issued in 2009 on Making Britain’s Roads the Safest in the World that based on the experience of 1968–71, the estimated effect of having lighter evenings would be to reduce road deaths by around 80 per year and serious injuries by around 212 per year This finding was based on research carried out by TRL – see TRL Report 368.

The RAC Foundation supports the introduction of a trial of Single/Double Summer Time in the overall interests of road safety. However, a recent bid to move the UK's clocks forward by an hour for a 3 year trail period failed after the legislation ran out of time in the Commons. The Daylight Saving Bill 2010-11 would have seen the UK adopt Central European time, with BST plus one in the summer and GMT plus one in winter.

For more information see the Lighter Later campaign website.

A11) Yes. Knowing and applying the rules contained in The Highway Code could significantly reduce road casualties. Cutting the number of deaths and injuries that occur on our roads every day is a responsibility we all share. The Highway Code can help us discharge that responsibility.

Many of the rules in the Code are legal requirements, and if you disobey these rules you are committing a criminal offence. You may be fined, given penalty points on your licence or be disqualified from driving. In the most serious cases you may be sent to prison. Such rules are identified by the use of the words ‘MUST/MUST NOT’.

Although failure to comply with the other rules of the Code will not, in itself, cause a person to be prosecuted, The Highway Code may be used in evidence in any court proceedings under the Traffic Acts (see 'The road user and the law') to establish liability. This includes rules which use advisory wording such as ‘should/should not’ or ‘do/do not’.

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A12) The advice given by the Highways Agency can be viewed here.