Road safety charity, the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM), says that the government cut spending on road safety campaigns from £19m in 2008/9 to only £4m in 2011/12. The near 80 per cent reduction was revealed following a freedom of information enquiry by the charity.
New figures released by the Department for Transport (DfT) suggest that budgetary restraint on safety campaigning is to continue. The DfT is planning to spend £3.7m in the 2012/13 financial year, £1.27m of it on motorcycle safety campaign and £1.68m on drink drive campaigning. Only £53,000 is to be spent on cyclist safety and £78,000 on child and teenager road safety. A budget of £50,000 has been allocated to research into young drivers which, if previous expensive form is to be repeated, should take the Transport and Research Laboratory 12 months research into how to spend it and at least ten minutes to spend!
The IAM’s Neil Greg says the road safety budget is being cut too hard and too quickly. “Every fatal road accident costs £1.7m so a life saved represents a huge return on investment. He added that £53,000 is a derisory amount to spend on a national cycle safety campaign and described the £78,000 budget for children’s safety campaigns as “virtually insignificant”.