< Back to news

15/04/2020

Why you should be more careful driving on empty roads during the COVID-19 pandemic

Government data shows that road traffic levels have dropped by around 60% since the Government introduced social distancing and an enforced lockdown.

Rush hour, according to The Times,  has now all but disappeared from many UK cities with the country  ‘staying at home’. However, there are major concerns that lower traffic levels have led to some drivers speeding.

The Metropolitan Police clocked one driver doing 91mph in a 50mph section of the A12 in east London and another doing 118mph on a 70mph stretch of the A13.

Speeding – one of the fatal four

Police forces say speeding is one of the ‘fatal four’ causes of road traffic collisions, along with the illegal use of mobile phones at the wheel, not wearing a seatbelt and drink-driving.

According to Department for Transport data, 177 people were killed in 2018 due to exceeding the speed limit, with 1,257 suffering serious injuries. Overall, excessive speed was responsible for 4,652 road traffic collisions.  – or the equivalent of 13 road traffic collisions a day1 during 2018.

In addition to this, there were 374 fatalities and a total of 9,186 road collisions caused by drivers losing control of vehicles, indicating there were actually even more fatalities where speed could have been a major factor. This equates to around one fatality and 25 collisions a day.

Read more RAC website