Global Road Deaths

1,270,000

Rights for crash victims

Victims of crashes involving law breaking are not accorded the same rights as other victims of crime. The Code for Victims excludes injured victims of culpable driving, except for dangerous driving. Those injured by careless driving, drink-driving and speeding are excluded.(Code link)
Victim Support, the government funded charity, does not include road crash victims in its mandate.
The National Victim Service is for families bereaved by murder and manslaughter and whilst it has been extended to include those bereaved by dangerous drivers, it does not include those bereaved by careless driving, including those with drivers under the influence.
Road crash victims have received no support from the Victim Surcharge, despite fines on motorists accounting for the majority of the revenue collected. (RP briefing link)
The use of the term ‘accidents’ which implies unpredictable, unfortunate and excusable, instead of more objective terms of collision or crash. (RP briefing)
Careless Driving, Dangerous Driving and Drink-Driving do not mention when someone has been injured by the driving, and the number of road crash victims caused by drivers breaking the law is not counted.

Road crash victims to be treated as victims of crime until the contrary is proven (this is an extension of the approach adopted by ACPO’s Road Death Investigation Manual which states a road death is to be considered an unlawful killing until the contrary is proven).
Support services for crash victims to be the responsibility of a statutory agency, instead of a charity which cannot be held accountable nor can be it be truly independent when it is dependent on state funding.
Motoring offences and road crashes to be included in all crime and community safety consultations. British Crime Survey to include road crash victims and speeding re-included in the anti-social behaviour survey.
‘Accident’ to be replaced by more neutral terminology such as “crash” or “collision” by the government and the media.
The number of crash victims involving crime (dangerous driving, careless driving, drink driving, etc) to be monitored and included as victims of violent crime.

This is core work for RoadPeace and has been an ongoing priority since we were formed.
Publish briefings such as The Equity Gap which document the discrimination faced by road crash victims.
Raise awareness of the extent of discrimination against road crash victims through our All-Party Parliamentary Group Justice for Road Traffic Victims.
Campaign for Victim Surcharge to benefit road crash victims (briefing).
Initiated a working group of charities that support road crash victims for joint appeals against the continued discrimination of road crash victims.
Ongoing campaign to get crash or collision used instead of accident.