The annual death toll can be driven towards zero and road travel could be made as safe as rail and air within a generation, according to a new report by the Road Safety Foundation.

Sudden road trauma destroys families but in the past we have failed to count the economic cost, says the Road Safety Foundation. Britain loses around two per cent of GDP in road crashes. A lifetime of care for a single victim can cost more than £20m. The NHS and care systems are put under stress.

The Road Safety Foundation’s report, ‘Making Road Travel as Safe as Rail and Air’, says the key is to eliminate known high risks systematically. It provides evidence on the risks that road users face across the targetable 10 per cent of British roads where half of all deaths take place – on motorways and ‘A’ roads outside major cities. The risks are mapped across thousands of stretches of road totalling more than 25,000 miles.

The report also shows where risks are falling over time – and where they are not.

The Road Safety Foundation says it is not enough to highlight suffering. Priorities and a business case are needed to compete for scarce investment.

Click here to read the full Road Safety Foundation report.