Mobiles cause one road death every ten days
dRIVERS using a mobile phone were involved in crashes which killed the equivalent of one person every ten days last year.
Some 35 deaths were recorded in accidents where a driver being distracted or impaired by their phone was a contributory factor in 2016, up from 22 the previous year.
A further 137 road users were seriously injured in such incidents, according to department for Transport (dfT) figures. They reveal that deaths in road traffic accidents overall have hit a five-year high, with 1,792 in 2016, up 4 per cent on the previous year and the most since 2011.
Pedestrian deaths saw the largest year-on-year rise at 10 per cent , followed by car occupants (8 per cent).
The figures do not specify what is to blame for the rise, but the RAC has previously said mobile phone use at the wheel has reached ‘epidemic’ proportions.
The dfT figures stem from before tougher penalties and fines were introduced for drivers caught using a handheld mobile earlier this year following the daily Mail’s End The Mobile Madness campaign.
But the RAC’s research arm the RAC Foundation said the figures showed there has been ‘next to no progress made in cutting the number of crash deaths’. AA president Edmund King called the average of five people killed per day ‘totally unacceptable’.
Charities criticised the figures, with IAM RoadSmart claiming road safety is ‘bumping along the floor with yet another year without improvement’. Brake said progress ‘has stalled’.
Campaigners called for the creation of a road accident investigation branch, similar to the teams seen in the rail, maritime and aviation industries, so lessons can be learned after accidents.
The dfT said the increase in fatalities was ‘not statistically significant’ and likely to be due to ‘natural variation’.
Some 24,101 people were seriously injured on roads in 2016, a 9 per cent rise on the previous year. The dfT said comparisons should be interpreted with caution due to changes in how police are classifying the severity of injuries.
The new system is believed to be more accurate and has led to an increase in the likelihood of injuries being recorded as serious.
A dfT spokesman said: ‘Britain has some of the safest roads in the world and the number of fatalities has fallen by 44 per cent over the last ten years, but we are determined to do more.’
He outlined a number of road safety measures announced by the Government in recent months, including the tougher penalties for illegal mobile phone use, a £175million investment in making 50 of the most dangerous A roads safer, and a review into cycling laws.
National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesman Anthony Bangham said: ‘we want safer roads and fewer deaths and injuries. Every day police officers across the country are using all available intelligence to enforce the law on the roads and target the most dangerous driver behaviours.’