Exceeding the speed limit or going too fast for conditions were reported as a contributory factor in 15% of all crashes

Company car drivers are increasingly using their vehicles as extensions of both the workplace and home, with one in 10 drivers admitting to eating and drinking while on the move, a third regularly making phone calls and two thirds listening to music or catching up with the news, according to research by vehicle leasing company Lex.

Their survey also reveals that only a third of business drivers (36%) say their sole preoccupation is on driving when they’re on the move, with new gadgets making it easier to multi task. More than half (55%) of drivers now have a hands-free mobile kit for example. Overwhelmingly, satellite navigation and hands-free mobile phone kits are the two things that drivers say help them work more effectively from their vehicles.

However, for the first time, the Department for Transport annual report on road casualty statistics analyses contributory factors to road crashes. And failing to look properly headed the list, being involved in 32% of all crashes in 2005, according to the report. Five of the six most frequently reported contributory factors were some kind of driver or rider error or reaction. For fatal accidents the most frequently reported contributory factor was loss of control, which was involved in 35% of fatal accidents.

Exceeding the speed limit or going too fast for conditions were reported as a contributory factor in 15% of all crashes. However, the factor became more significant with the severity of the incident – it was reported as a contributory factor in 26% of fatal crashes and they accounted for 28% of all deaths (793 people). Kevin Clinton, head of road safety at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, says: “Failing to look properly and loss of control are symptoms of poor driving and that shows the importance of everyone taking some form of refresher training.”

With at-work drivers performing more tasks than ever behind the wheel and technology taking over some of the burden of driving itself – a third of drivers in the Lex research say they use satellite navigation – it is perhaps no surprise that some motorists are not fully focused on the road ahead.

Crashes can have more than one contributory factor and the DfT calculates that on average 2.4 contributory factors per incident are reported. In compiling a crash report a list of 77 contributory factors are used by the police. The DfT report analysed the reason(s) behind 147,509 crashes. Controversially, exceeding the speed limit was attributed to 3% of cars involved in crashes, while driving too fast for the conditions was attributed to 7%. For fatal crashes the figures are 7% and 10% respectively. Equivalent figures for buses/coaches are 0% and 3%; light goods vehicles 2% and 7% and HGVs 1% and 5%.

Overall, the DfT says that exceeding the speed limit was a contributory factor in 5% of all crashes and 12% of fatalities, with going too fast for the conditions a contributory factor in 10% of all incidents and 14% of fatalities. The report, which says that excessive speed can contribute “significantly to the severity of a crash”, concludes: “Accidents that involved exceeding the speed limit as a contributory factor were over twice as likely to result in at least one fatality compared to those that did not”.

Historically, it has been widely believed that up to a third of crashes were caused by speed. With exceeding the speed limit a contributory factor in 5% of all crashes, the Association of British Drivers said it was “this heinous statistical misrepresentation” that has brought about the near 6,000 speed cameras lining Britain’s roads and the myriad of mobile cameras.

The organisation says: “Most road traffic accidents are the result of a cocktail of road user observation, hazard perception and hazard response failings that remain completely unaddressed by the one-size-fits-all approach that is blanket speed enforcement. This is why speed cameras have been such a monumental road safety failure.”

Road Casualties Great Britain 2005 annual report is available at www.dft.gov.uk

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