Government figures show fall in HGV fatal accident rate

Thursday 24 September 2015

Road casualty statistics released by the Government today show that the number of fatal accidents per billion lorry miles fell by 3.5 per cent in 2014.

The figure is 43 per cent lower than a decade ago, but the Freight Transport Association says operators and drivers will remain vigilant about minimising harm on the UK’s road system.

Christopher Snelling, FTA’s Head of National & Regional Policy and Public Affairs, said:

“The logistics industry is committed to improving its performance on road safety through new innovations in vehicle design and better driver education.”

The annual Reported Road Casualties data shows there were 240 fatal accidents involving HGVs in 2014 – almost half the number of deaths in 2005.

Mr Snelling said:

“Whilst this has been a challenging year for road safety, these figures illustrate that our industry’s approach is making progress. We want to keep going as an industry to play our part in making road transport as safe as it can be. Improved HGV vehicle designs and safety features, as well as improved driver training and management, will be part of this.

“Beyond this, FTA calls for more targeted enforcement of existing HGV driver and vehicle regulation against seriously non-compliant operators who undermine the efforts of the vast majority; continued spending on improving and maintain road infrastructure; and for all users of our roads to learn as much as they can about how to share the roads safely.”