Advocating for Safer Roads and the Fight for Road Justice

When it comes to road collisions, the little word ‘just’ gets heard all too often in relation to the crime, but less often in relation to the sentencing. While there are people who knowingly set out to commit road crimes – driving uninsured, breaking speed limits – there are also many people who don’t consider themselves ‘criminals,’ but through inattention or lack of forethought end up committing serious road crimes, frequently with disastrous consequences.

“I just glanced at my phone” 

“I just fell asleep” 

“I just didn’t see him!”
“It was just an accident”

Words by Hannah Reynolds

This post is about Fusion’s work with the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking (APPGCW) and our role in  helping to deliver the ‘Road Justice’ report 2023, but it is also a personal story. 

In June 2020, right in the thick of COVID-19, my father was killed in a head on collision by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel. The other driver was a respected member of the community, a professional with a valued job in the NHS. He was neither very young, speeding, or taking drugs or drunk. He just fell asleep. 

When it came to court he was originally charged with dangerous driving, his legal team put in a plea for the lesser charge of careless driving and on the recommendation of our legal team and police family liaison officer we were advised to accept it. Why? Because in front of a jury, too many people would have sympathy for him, a sense that it could just as easily be them in the dock, that he was too respectable to be a criminal. That he ‘just’ fell asleep and therefore it was a sad accident rather than a crime. 

Road Justice Report 2023 

Our roads are currently a political battlefield and our laws a legal minefield. The highly divisive ‘war on motorists’ phrase is making it even harder for active travel campaigners to get the messages heard or supported. At Fusion, we have worked with the APPGCW for several years. We value the opportunity to speak to Members of Parliament about the issues that matter to us and to our clients and most importantly support the group in their work in promoting cycling and walking. 

One of the most impactful pieces of work we have done with the APPGCW is to help deliver the ‘Road Justice’ report 2023, an update on a 2017 inquiry  called ‘Cycling in the Justice System’. This comprehensive report, supported by British Cycling and Leigh Day, addresses key issues around road justice and sentencing. It was presented at a meeting in Parliament, and features ten pivotal recommendations aimed at redressing the disparity between acts of road violence and the penalties for those who commit them. 

Ensuring Road Justice is a national talking point is important politically, but also on a more individual level by making our nation’s drivers think about the consequences of their actions. Chris Boardman gave a very personal and emotional talk at the launch of the report, not as an active travel campaigner or Walking and Cycling commissioner, although he is both, but as a bereaved son.

The narrative that there is a ‘war on motorists’ needs to be counterbalanced with the evidence of how many lives are being lost and people injured by other road users. With 32 pieces of coverage including The Guardian The Road Justice Report has made the public more aware, sparked debate and spread greater awareness of these issues. 

Call it by its real name

In September 2020, the Active Travel Academy created new media guidelines on how road traffic crashes and criminal offences on the road should be reported. Dehumanising language like ‘they were hit by a car’ with no mention of the driver, or referring to a collision as an accident removes human responsibility. Holding the human being accountable in both language used and justice served is an important message to all road users. 

For most of us, driving is one of the most dangerous activities we ever take part in, yet we do it nearly every day with barely a second thought. The continued normalisation of road crimes such as speeding by giving out light or punitive sentences means that drivers are unlikely to change their perceptions of driving as low risk, nor change their behaviour on the road. A large part of the Road Justice Report’s recommendations is focused on the need to bring the punishments more in line with the consequences.

What the report is advocating for is just and fair sentencing. In the case of my father, the other driver received a suspended sentence and community service. The judge in his summing up even used the phrase ‘tragic accident’ clearly showing how much work needs to be done still on language around road collisions. 

Do I want to see a man in prison? No, it won’t bring my father back. But I do want every person who gets into a car to feel the full weight of responsibility every time they turn the key in the ignition. It’s just as easy to switch off your phone or just leave ten minutes earlier, as get in your car and commit a crime that will change your life and someone else’s forever. 

Driving Change

At Fusion, playing our part in making Britain’s roads safer for cycling and walking is incredibly important to us. We know how much perceptions of road safety can be a barrier to the uptake of cycling.

All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) are informal cross-party groups run by and for Members of the Commons and Lords who share an interest in a specific topic. They have no official status within Parliament but may use their influence and connections to ensure that topics of interest are heard. Since the 1970’s the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking (APPGCW) has worked on a cross-party basis to promote all forms of cycling and walking, working with representatives of organisations in the private, public, and third sectors that share their vision. The group works to communicate the benefits of active travel within parliament and conducts enquiries on pressing matters relating to walking and cycling. Fusion has worked with the APPGCW since 2020 to provide public affairs and communications support. 

Read the report in full HERE.