The DfT announces a new Road Safety Investigation Branch

22 August 2022

The Department for Transport (DfT) recently announced that it will be recruiting a specialised team to form the UK’s first Road Safety Investigation Branch (RSIB), which will investigate ‘themes’ in the causes of road traffic accidents, make recommendations for how they can be reduced and explore how new technology, such as self-driving vehicles, can be introduced on UK roads.

The DfT believes that this new department could drastically improve road safety in the UK and reduce collisions, with a knock-on effect of reducing a related £30 billion annual cost to the NHS.

Roads Minister Baroness Vere said, “The UK may have some of the safest roads in the world, but tragedies still happen and any injury or death on our road network is one too many.

“That’s why we’re establishing the road safety investigation branch, so we can boost safety for road users even further and also bring safety measures in line with other modes of transport and the future of travel.”

The RSIB will examine information collected from study programmes, the Collision Reporting and Sharing System with the memorable acronym CRASH, Forensic Collision Investigation reports and Prevention of Future Death reports, as well as data from insurance companies, vehicle manufactures, emergency services and the NHS. This information will then be used in order for the RSIB to make official recommendations to improve road safety and reduce collisions.

RAC Foundation Director Steve Gooding said, “Over the past four years, the Foundation has run the Road Collision Investigation Project with funding from government and National Highways. Working with three police forces and many other experts, we have demonstrated the strong case for a fresh way of investigating death and injury on the road network, which is why we are delighted with this announcement.

“We look forward to working further with the government to get the branch set up and make our roads safer still.”

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