IMMANENT PROFIT THROUGH SAFETY
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Mi There are those who would say that there have already been more than enough conferences, slogans and schemes spawned by European Road Safety Year. We cannot agree, not when it seems that, in terms of its impact on deaths and injuries on our roads, it has been a flop. The Government statistics on last year's road accidents have not yet been published — they are not expected until May — but all the signs are that they will be disappointing. The slightly encouraging trend of 1985, when road casualties and deaths were down by respectively two and eight per cent, has almost certainly been reversed.
Many organisations and individuals threw their weight selflessly behind ERSY, none more so than Roads and Traffic Minister, Peter Bottomley, and for that they should be applauded. Nevertheless, we are left with an uncomfortable feeling, reinforced by dark hints of what the next set of accident statistics will show, that much of this effort has done no more than scratch the surface of a problem which goes much deeper than many politicians and others seem prepared to accept.
It was from this uncomfortable feeling that the idea grew for the theme of this year's Fleet Management Conference — Profit through Safety. We make no apology for linking road transport's commercialism with road safety. There is no doubt that accidents on the road cost society dearly — not only in grief and suffering but in pounds and pennies. Also we believe that safer operating practices can lead directly to healthier profits. More importantly, we believe that a fresh approach that could lead to greater sense of responsibility and thus fewer accidents might rub off from CV operators to the legislators and to other road users. The profit motive might just be the key to the new initiative which is so clearly required when, as the DTp reminds us, the Albert Hall could be filled every year with the people who die on our roads.
If the speakers at the Royal Lancaster this week do no more than make the FMC delegates and Commercial Motor's readers think more deeply about how they can contribute to making our roads safer, it will have been a success.