In the fight to reduce cyclist accidents and pedestrian accidents on the roads, the National Audit Office (NAO) has produced a report named “Improving road safety for pedestrians and cyclists in Great Britain” which shows how road safety improvements are working, and suggesting improvements.

In Great Britain travelling by road accounts for 97% of all transport related fatalities, with pedestrians and cyclists being at a greater risk of serious injury or death per distance travelled due to having little or no protection if they are involved in a road accident, only motorcycle accidents record more fatalities per distance travelled than pedestrians and cyclists.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has set targets against figures from between 1994 and 1998 of reducing deaths and serious injury from road accidents by 40%, child fatalities and serious injury by 50% and minor injuries by 10% by the year 2010. They are on target to achieve these targets with figures standing at 36%, 55% and 32% respectively as at 2007.

Figures from the DfT show that fatalities and serious injury from pedestrian accident were down 41% by 2007, with cyclist accidents resulting in death or serious injury being down 31% by 2007, both being compared against the 1994 through 1998 average.

However it is known that some less serious injuries are downgraded to slight injuries, and many incidents are not recorded at all, this then puts some doubt around the figures because it is not known if the reporting methods were the same when the targets were set.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) road safety manager for England said: “We welcome the attention that this report places on some of the most vulnerable users of our roads – cyclists and pedestrians. A key challenge is how to encourage more people to walk and cycle, which is something we want to see, without that leading to an increase in road casualties.

“Although tremendous progress has been made in reducing overall road casualties in recent years, we know that some groups of road users have fared better than others. And on average, eight people are still killed on Britain’s roads every day.