Episode 1 How Safe are Britain's Roads?

Last year a number of people killed on Britain's road went up for the

first time in years. 1900 people died on them. That is more than

four jumbo jets full of people.. 23 packed double decker buses.

172 football teams. And over 23,000 were seriously injured. That is

enough seriously injured people to fill the jolve cricket ground

total injured is more than the entire population of Luton. Is this

number of casualties acceptable? What can be done to reduce it?

are driving across the country. Driving on motorways. A-roads

streets And rural high ways. meet safety experts traffic police

and the survives of collisions and they all agree. We take the biggest

risk of our lives, every time we get behind the wheel of our cars.

was thinking we are going to go under the Iceland truck, that is

it: We are gone. Why do we have so many accidents and how can we avoid

them? We would close the railway network if we had the number of

deaths that just occur on this road in five years. We will be showing

the simple changes that could transform the safety of our streets.

If was traffic signals I don't think I would be here. And the

innovations that experts say will mean nobody will die on Britain's

My name is Justin Rowlatt. I have a trustty seven-year-old people

carrier that has seen better days. I am Anita Rani and this is my type

of car. A nippy run around. I absolutely love driving. I was one

of those people who couldn't wait to pass my test. For me, driving

meant independence. My wife would probably say I am not a very good

driver. In a stream of traffic, and I just accidentally went into the

back of the car in front. Not going at a massive speed, but the air

bags went off and I had the baby in the back. Anita, how are you doing?

Mine has this black box, I am not happy about it. I have no idea

where it it is Fist off is the answer a spy in the car? New

surveillance technology that monitors a driver's every move.

Hidden behind the glove compartment of my car is a state-of-the-art box.

It logs any mistake I make, a sharp turn, speeding, anything, and it

records the lot on line. Insurance companies love it because it helps

judge how dangerous we really are. Take a look at what I have got.

What? I can't with worse than mine This does everything yours does but

it son camera. I have drive cam. One camera pointing at the road and

another at me. It is filming the whole time, but if I do something

wrong, it send film of the event to a web page, so you can see

incidents unfold. I don't think I am the best driver in the world.

Maybe that, they will catch me doing something embarrassing.

Hopefully I will learn from the experience and be a better driver

as a result. The latest Government figures show road deaths are rising

for the first time in years. But why? I am going to be seeing for

myself the consequences of crashes, and learning some simple tricks

that could help you avoid them. want to know what are the most

common causes of collisions? I will find out when, where and usually ou

they happen. We are going to look at the three major types of road.

Motorway, A roads and urban streets. We want to understand how roads and

cars can be made safer, and reduce deaths. Let us start with the

motorways. There are 2218 miles of motorway in Britain and we use them

a lot. We do 170 million miles a day on them thrai. The lifeline of

our economy but they are also the scene of hur biggest crashes..

on patrol with the Essex Traffic Police this one of their unmarked

vehicles. What causes the most accidents on motorways? People

driving too close, not paying attention, someone brakes far ahead,

especially in traffic, and someone fails to react and you get the

concertina effect. You look that the lorry. Look how close it S he

has indicated. He gave me no choice, I was going to have toe slow. The

truck has a big mirror. He is not having a good day. He got off

lightly. But as we just saw, when vehicles change lane, they will

often move into tighter gap, which cuts safe braking distances.

Travelling down the A12 trunk road, we soon spot another tailgateer.

Just see up ahead, there is a gar braking. He came past at quite a

bit of speed, you will see how close he gets to the van in close.

Is he too close? He is a car-and-a- half's length. There, that is what

we do not want to say. He goes for the undertake. We are going to be

pulling one at the lay-by, black BW. He is not happy. You overtook me

and two other cars, caused the car to brake, you got behind that van

and you were braking, what nearly happened to you, you nearly crashed

into someone. Were you aware there was a slip road? I take your point.

Sorry. Take care. The leaf on his face when he realised you weren't

going to give him a ticket. didn't have a dent in his car.

is lucky. I am also out with the lis, but in South Yorkshire, with

more than 100 accident tons motorway, I want to see for myself,

how the emergency services respond to traffic incidents. We have had a

call saying there has been a road traffic accident somewhere up the

motorway. Apparently a vehicle has turned over. It is blocking at

least one of the carriageways because we have a massive tail back.

This is what happened. The trailer started to swing out of control. It

jack-knifed and it and the Land Rover towing it rolled over. I

could see how vital the hard shoulder is to the emergency

services. This is the first time I have been on a motorway just after

an accident has happened. We are lucky. This accident, no-one was

hurt. I shows why it is so important to keep your distance

from the car in front. If a car or lorry had been close behind this

trailer, the driver would probably not be talking to me now. Three on

thes. Three on thes? Three on thes of trailer turned over in the

middle of the carriageway, the Land Rover turned over behind it and the

miracle is nobody hit it. Had another car hit it, goodness knows,

we would probably be talking about fatalities here. It is incredible.

This accident happened about 25 minutes ago. Already, you know you

would hardly know it happened. First traffic started moving on the

motorway, they reckon it will be open in five minutes. All cleared

up: -- cleared up. Last year 106 people were kill and 740 seriously

injured on our motorways. The worst accidents, the ones that hit the

headlines are the pile ups. Travelling at speed, when a car

develops a problem, and suddenly swerves, stops or slows down,

vehicles behind can't react in time, and they crash. With heavy traffic,

more cars are forced into braking and skidding across lanes. That

sparks knock on accidents further down the motorway. The pile ups are

more likely in poor visibility. Snow, ice, rain and fog, they

impair your view, gives you less traction on the road and can

ultimately be lethal. A number of people have died and dozens injured

in a crash on the M5 in Somerset. One of the worst pile ups in

British history happened on the M5 last year. Seven people died, 51

were injured. The exact causes of the crash are still unclear, but

there was fog on that stretch of the road, and it is alleged smoke

drifting from a firework display made visibility even worse. The

organiser of the display now faces seven charges of manslaughter.

Roger and his wife were in the centre of the devastation but they

escaped unhurt. What happened that night. We joined the slip road and

within seconds, moved into the middle lane, behind the Iceland

truck. It just disappeared into a tunnel of fog. It was gone. It was

fog thicker than I have ever seen. It was like someone put a blanket

over it. All the bleak lites came on the lorry. We braked sharply and

we stopped with ten feet to spare behind the lorry. Instantly there

were bangs and crashes from all round and behind us. So you knew

that car after car was crashing. thought we were going to get hit

straight away. I was thinking we are going to go under the Iceland

truck, that is it, we are gone. were waiting to be hit. A lorry

jack-knife behind us. Protected us. Behind us was a ring of mangled

cars that had been swept up by the lorly there was woman trapped under

the car, the car was pinned by a lorry, which haunted me for months.

We are very lucky. One or both of us could have died that night, but

we didn't. One question the crash raises, is whether the road itself

could have been safer. After all, fog has contributed to lots of

other accidents. The investigation started after last December's pile

up on the M25. Nine people died when cars travelling in thick fog

collided. The Department of Transport are planning to install a

new type of early warning system. Automatic fog warning systems which

detect low visibility have been round for decades. But are still

not installed on many fog prone stretchs of motorways. On the M5,

the warnings have to be manually act vit vaited. They weren't that

night. -- activated. Warning systems have not been emproved

experts say, because of cuts. automated cameras had been in place

such as the M5 crash, we may not have seen the loss of life we saw

that evening. It would have warned drivers there was a hazard so they

are able better to cope with what was happening in front of them. The

drive down of the roads budget has had a lot to do with it. We are not

only seeing drops in what can be done, but in expertise, so learning

from others, and gaining that experience, that tells us what work,

so the right measures are in the right places. The highways agency

say it about spending money where it has the greatest benefit. They

say fog detection and warning systems are sited in locations that

experience these conditions on a regular basis. Automation isn't the

only way to improve warning systems, and cut casualties. The M42 and M46

are the first of a new type of road. -- M6. The managed motorway. With

overhead gantries, traffic can be monitored and controlled, using

cameras and sign, and an unprecedented way. I am visiting

the M42 control centre, to see how it works. So we have a car that has

broken down in the middle lane. am setting the signal now. To tell

them there is a car broken down.. Yes, a stranding vehicle. As you

can see we have the message saying stranded vehicle, I am closing

these two lanes. That tells us they are closed. So the policeman has

pushed the car out of the way. What are you going to do? What I will do

is take off the Red Crosss on here. So they have opened up again. You

cannot drive down Exactly. It is as quick has the, that is how fast you

can reacts to something? Yes. Managed motor wears designed to

tackle congestion, they allow the highways agency to open up the hard

shoulder as a temporary extra lane. Which is cheaper than building a

new one. By controlling traffic flow they have noticed good side

effects. We are seeing incident bus they are less vee, so we get maybe

a more rear end shunts but we are not getting the major incidents

that can end up in fatalities. We have had none out there on the

managed motorway since we brought The plan is to open the hard

shoulder, permanently as an extra lane between junctions 31 and 35.

Chief Superintendent Keith Lumley of South Yorkshire Police has grave

reservations. Many in my view they are not a managed motorway. They

are a significant reduction on what With fewer gantries it will be hard

tore control speed with no hard shoulder, broken down car woos have

to use one of the safe refuges every 2.5 kilometers or simply sit

and wait in live lanes of traffic. Stationary vehicles on the motorway

are a real hazard, wean a hard shoulder. What we have to bear in

mind, there is approximately 2,500 break downs on the M1 that are

dealt with by the rescue services. What we are seeing here is a lorry

driver. He is weaving from side to side for some reason. I can't

understand why. He has gone over the white line on the hard shoulder

and has struck one of the emergency response vehicles. The motorway was

closed for several hours. worried are you at the plans

proposed? So worried that I spoke directly to the Highways Agency to

get tomb to reconsider the design and layout. We are working with

them to modify it to put in acceptable improvements in the

engineering, recognising the need to reduce costs, but also not at

the expense of fatal collisions and loss of life. The highway agency

say they are confident they can provide the additional capacity

without compromising safety. They are working with the South

Yorkshire Safer Road Partnership to agree on the operation of the

scheme. For the moment, monitoring us and controlling our speed is

reducing deaths on the motorways. The Government is thinking about

raising the speed limit to 80mph. What impact will that have? I think

it's a good idea. At 70, we cruise at 75 anyway. If you take it to 80,

we will cruise at 85. Cars are more powerful and safer than they used

to be. At that speed, risk of accidents will probably go up.

Nearly half of all drivers break the speed limit on motorways. The

Government say raising it could bring big economic gains through

shorter journey times. Is the speed limit out-of-date? When the first

motorway was built in 1959 there were few cars and even fewer safety

features. Most cars didn't have seatbelts. People were still

adjusting to the new rules of the road.

NEWSREEL: If you over shoot the turning point, don't try to do this.

Reversing and turning on the motorway is an offence which could

cost you �20. In 1965, after a spate of serious accidents, a speed

limit was imposed on motorways of 70mph. I'm taking an Austin 1100,

the most popular car of the day, for a spin, to see what the speed

limit must have meant to drivers in 1965. The idea of travelling at 70,

particularly today, when it's wet out, is... I really mean this, is

genuinely frightening. We are 60. Let's take her up to 70. It will

take a while. This is the kind of car that was around. It's so

different from modern cars. If I'm honest, so much worse. You do kind

of wonder whether 70mph speed limit is really relevant any more. My

people carrier certainly feels as if it could comfortably do more

than 70mph and stop a lot more quickly. There are three times more

traffic than in 1966. Stop distances are more important than

ever. My car is seven years old, the same as the average car on

Britain's roads. I want to know what the increase to 80 would mean

in an emergency. I've come to a test track. Matthew and Colin are

experts in car safety. This was one of the first cars with this latest

technology of this electronic brake force distribution and emergency

brake assist. This actually is quite a good car. What do you mean

"actually"? It's not been maintained as as well as it could

have been. There can be technology on the car. The only connection

between you and the road is the tyre. Your tyres are not the best.

There is no tread there. It's verging on the illegal. When did

you last test your tyre pressure? Not for a while. Ever. No. Can you

tell me what it should be? 312 all round. That is a 17. Your hand book

says 36, not 32. I did think it looked soft when I put it in.

Joking aside, this is a sobering revelation as badly maintained

tyres contributed to the death of 28 people last year. 30.8. 27.7.

think what we should do is show you the difference between a vehicle

with the latest generation braking technology. You will see the

difference there that the technology is making and decent

tyres. How does my poorly maintained car compare to a car

with state-of-the-art technology and new tyres when driving at high

speeds. Colin and I have to get our cars up to 70mph and emergency

brake at the same time to test both cars' stopping distances. There we

go! Oh! Smells of rubber. That is quite a difference. If I'm stopped

on this one you are maybe, one, two, two-and-a-half, three cones further

up. Each one of these is five meters? Yes. You are 15 meters

further on there. If my average car, with its bad tyres needs a third

more distance to stop than the new Actually if I hit something there,

that is still a serious accident. I have slowed down enough, but not

enough to be safe. In fact, at 80, I would still be going 40mph at the

place I stopped at 70. On a busy motorway, this could make the

difference between stopping in time and having a fatal collision. I had

my tyres sorted shortly afterwards. What do you think about this debate

ba speed limits? Should Britain raise from 70mph to 80mph? All the

studies we have done around around the world, when you raise the speed

limit you raise the killed and seriously injured. We calculated

you are likely to see 10% increase in killed and seriously injured.

really is as simple a as this. You increase the speed limit, more

people will die? Increase the speed limit on any die, more people will

be killed and seriously injured. Fact. We have had the latest

technology installed in our cars which monitors our driving.

Justin's device films him constantly and uploads errattic

driving to a web page so it can be evaluated. This will be the first

time we get to see the footage. moment of truth. Oh, no! It's all

recorded. His drivecam footage will be assessed by ex-police driving

instructor, Chris Gilbert. Chris, you are an advanced driving

instructor, aren't snu he taught Princes Wills and Harry to drive,

you know a thing or two? I'm very privileged. The event trigger was

cornering. Can you see that? Quite quick cornering? It is indeed. Far

too fast. How fast should he have been going You need to stop in the

distance you should see to be clear. You took it at 27. Far too fast.

Far too fast. This is quite unforgiving this drivecam thing.

What do you think of it? Excellent. This is the first time I have seen.

It there is a great deal of value in this for anyone looking back at

their errors. If this is highlighted to them and they have

an opportunity to look at this, I think the learning curve is quite

steep much you don't know what is waiting around that corner. At this

point your hands are wrapped across the steering wheel. This is bad

driving. Everybody does this. The airbag opens at over 200 miles per

hour. It opens with 1,000 llbs per square inch. Your arms will hit

your face at 200mph. People every day drive and repeat their bad

habits. The fact they don't pay the price for the mistakes they make

throughout their journey means they do it the following day. They

haven't had accidents, why should they worry? You think that is what

is happening to me? Yes, it is. company whose cameras they are have

accumulated an archive of near misses and non-foetal accidents in

the United States. This footage could help analyse how accidents

happen. -- non-fatal. I will have lessons to help address my bad

driving habits. How are you doing? Hello. Driving carefully as I pick

you up. Well done. Didn't want to get told off immediately. Try to

avoid resting your right elbow on the door. Right. Yes. Both hands on

the wheel? Both hands on the wheel. Looking well ahead. Exactly.

Looking down to the foreground, lifting back up again. He is

teaching me to look further ahead. So I have more time to react to

what's happening around me. How much difference to the risk of

having an accident is this kind of forward thinking, this looking

ahead? My opinion is, you would increase your driving safety by 90%.

Britain's road safety record has improved vastly in recent decades.

We have some of the safest roads in the world. There are areas of our

road network that have seen significant increases in the

numbers killed and seriously injured in the last year. I have

come off the motorway, I'm driving on an A-road, my chances of getting

into a collision have gone up by five times. Only about a tenth of

our road network is made up of A- roads. Half of all fatalities

happened on them last year, up by 8%. More than 1,000 people died on

them and nearly 10,000 seriously injured. We will drive on some of

the riskest roads of all, the rural single carriageways. Of the ten

most dangerous roads in Britain, seven are clust nerd one area,

Derbyshire and Cheshire. Chris has agreed to show me how one of these

roads should be driven. Nice motor. I like it. This is one of the most

dangerous roads in Britain, up there, second possibly now the most

dangerous road in Britain. Tell me what I should be looking at?

problem on a road like this for people is they don't use their

speed sensibly. The more vision we get we could increase the speed up

towards the speed limit. That gives you an idea of the hazards. As the

road lengthens you can make progress, if you think it's safe.

As the road gets shorter, which is what it does, as we approach

something, that is when we have to consider easing back off. It's all

about how far you can see? Yes. It's about reading the road.

Casualties on A-roads happen mainly in three ways. Crashes, turning in

and out of junctions. Head on collisions whilst overtaking and

coming off at bends and hitting objects such as trees. Bend

accidents are particularly common on this road, due to its popularity

with a certain type of road user. On this road, the A5012, 78% of

those killed and seriously injured are motor cyclists. Four of the ten

most dangerous roads form part of a network of routes popular with

bikers. The town of Matlock Bath is where they get together. Bike

something about adrenaline and freedom and the naughty side of it.

0-60 in less than two seconds. is way faster than a Porsche or a

Lamborghini? Oh, yeah, in the dust. The open roads and controlling the

bikes and throw them around corners. Just the adrenaline really. We have

the ambulance going past. The truth is, 78% of the deaths and serious

injuries on this road are motor cyclists. Yeah. What is that about?

Most people think they can ride fast and just push their luck a

little bit too much sometimes. Government is considering dropping

the speed limit to 40 on many stretches of rural A-roads. What do

Matlock bikers think of that? not people riding at 60mph causing

the accidents, people riding at double of that on the same road and

treating it like a racetrack are ruining it for us. We would be in

first gear. You wouldn't have any accidents? What we should do then

is probably get rid of all bikes, then we all drive around in cars

with trackers. So we all, do you know what I mean? You think it's a

freedom thing here? Totally. Bike something about freedom. That is

one word wiebging -- bike something For cars overtaking on A-roads can

be more dangerous. At just 17, Josie, a keen showjumper survived a

head-on collision on a rural stretch of the A4042. That was 2003.

Better known these days as a Paralympic gold medallist the

accident has defined her life ever since. Have you got it in there?

Can I see it? Can I touch it? course you can. That is so heavy!

Oh, God, it is gorgeous. Joes ji and four friend were on a day out

when her boyfriend tried to overtake another car on a bend.

They ended up in a head-on collision that killed him and left

Josie paralysed from the chest down. Tell me what injuries you sustained.

I don't really have any movement or feeling from my top of my chest

downwards. So I don't have any use of my leg, I don't have any feeling

there. What was the impact on your family? Devastating for the whole

family, really. I guess it is not just life-changing for me, but for

them as well. When society thinks about crash, do you think we are

too fixated on the fatalities that, the people that die rather than

survive. People should know what happens to the people who get

injured and how veer they can be, and how they have to deal with them

from a day-to-day basis. I am a lucky one, I can live independently,

unfortunately there are people out there that can't, and rely on

constant care. Do you think roads, A-roads in particular, need to be

made safer? I live in the countryside, and you know, most

roads are a 60mph zone, which I feel is, it should be much lower,

there should be much stricter limits. Aside from speed limits is

there anything that could be done to these roads to make them less

dangerous? I am riding with the European roads assessment programme,

EuroRAP and this is the rapmobile. Vehicles like this scan road in

Britain, giving each one a safety rating and suggesting improvements.

With me is John Dawson, EuroRAP chairmanment we are looking at the

A530. Ranked at the sixth most dangerous road in Britain. On one

eight mile stretch of this road, 46 people have been killed or

seriously injured in the last ten years. Using this vehicle, what can

you tell about a road? As I drive along, almost every single risk

factor that you could imagine is popping up on this eight mile

section of road. Nearly half of the crashes on this road are at

junctions. We are passing through a junction now where there is no safe

turning bay. A vehicle has to stand in the centre of the road, and just

hope that no-one comes from behind and wipes them out. Creating safe

turning bays can be as simple as painting lines on the reend it is

one of the most coast effective crash prevention methods. Look at

that lamppost close to roadside. Hit one of those at any speed and

you are dead. This is pretty much a crisis stretch of road. What do you

mean? We would close the railway network if we had the number of

deaths and serious injuries that occur thon road in five years.

A530 cuts through the village of aston where the residents live on a

high risk junction. Look at the traffic here. This is one of the

accident blackspots on the road. It is a key junction and what is

interesting isn't just the cars rushing up and down, it is if you

look at the road markings, they have been ground away by the

traffic. On the other side of the road there are signs which have

been knocked over. So what is it like to live of one of the most

dangerous roads in Britain? When I am taking the kid to school,

turning right, I am waiting for someone to be overtaking a truck or

coming round the corner, and for someone to plough in the side of

the car. I had an accident turning right. At the time when I pulled

out, there was nothing. But by the time I had got across the road, he

had bumped into me. The cars just come through the fence because they

can't control themselves. Into your garden? Yes. Last one was three

weeks' ago. These poorly designed junctions are all over the country

and can be a source of misery for the people who live near them. In

the village of Rivenhall I have chanced upon a man rebuilding a

wall. What happened here? A car knocked it over. Look at that.

know. Luckily no-one was hurt. is what remains of the car. That is

very scary. This time they got them. Most of the time the wall is

knocked down and they drive off. How many times has this happened?

have rebuilt it five times. In how long? Five or six years. Overall,

one third of deaths on single and dual carriageways happen on

junctions like this one. Why have you got your van here? To protect

me while I am working. Are you that worried? Yeah, wait until a lorry

It is really obvious what the problem is here. You know it's a

30mph road that runs through little village, going straight on to one

of the most major A road going in and out of London. That is why you

have got cars going through people's frond walls. Night mare!

The Department for Transport puts the cost to the economy of a road

fatality at 1.7 million, a serious injury is valued at �190,000. So by

the DFT's own rock conning accidents here have cost the

economy nearly �15 million over the last decade. Yet EuroRAP calculates

it would cost less than 2.5 million to put many of the problems right.

If you put in a safety barrier or traffic signals or revised junction

you save that amount, not this year, every year for the next 20 years

typically, so this is why, infrastructure safety is so high

return, because round abouts which I put in as a young engineer, and

that were saving five or six deaths or injuries a year are still doing

that 30, 40 years later. Which makes me wonder if the benefits of

investing in safety on roads like this are so great, why on earth

hasn't the Local Authority been spending money here? Last year, the

Government made Local Authorities responsible for safety on their

road. Rod Menlove is from Cheshire East Council. We drive it today,

with the European road assessment programme, the chairman, who

described the road as in crisis, he said any road that is killing this

many people urgently needs attention. It is obviously a

dangerous road, but it all comes down in the end to the driver

activity. They should be driving according to road and traffic

conditions. Some would they that is complacent. It's a problem settling

the priorities, OK. We don't have enough to spend on the road, and

that, I mean all Local Authorities have the same problem there is

nowhere near enough coming from central Government to spend tn road.

Shouldn't you go to Government and say we need money to address this

problem, there are people dying here, you need to help us. That is

a very good point, in fact, earlier this month, our leader, he wrote in,

and he said we need money for the road, the roads are getting worse

and worse, we have had three bad winter, we have had load of floods,

we need more money. What did the Government say? We haven't got an

answer yet. I think we were pitching for something like 40

million as a realistic figure. We wait to see. So have the Government

handed over responsibility to Cheshire east but not given them

enough money? I have set up a meeting with Stephen Hammond the

minister responsible for road safety. We have spoken to Local

Authorities, and they say they don't have enough money. Cheshire

says it needs �40 million more. Everybody is going to demand extra

money. What I ask them to think about is how they prioritise how

their spending, to ensure road safety is at the top of it and to

think ant the huge amount of money Government is providing to them.

The amount of money you are providing to Local Authorities is

reducing. Again, every Local Authority will have to sound out

its priorities, it would be an odd authority that didn't decide road

safe ty. We can't expect any major improphet s on big east sixth most

dangerous road any time soon, so be careful if you drive along it. --

emprovements. It is not just improving speed limits that will

reduce the number of casualties. Since road deaths reached their all

time high of 8,000 there has been a steady decline and much of that is

down to improvements in car stebg ji. -- technology. There are

crumple zones designed to absorb the energy. Space between the

bonnet and the engine means that fewer pedestrians die from head

injuries. Air bags and seat belts keep you in position and protect

you from hitting the hard surfaces in the car that used to kill

thousands a year in Britain. Good morning. Since midnight last night

if you to drive and don't wear one of these you are breaking the law

and you can be fined up to �350. is estimated seat belts have saved

more than 60,000 lives since they became compulsory in 83. A third of

people killed last year, weren't wearing seat belts. But there is

only so far you can go designing a car to be safe in an accident, that

is why the focus these days is about avoiding accidents in the

first place. Are back at the test track. These technologies are going

to be a revolution in crash safety. These are going to prevent crash,

like nothing else before. This isn't expensive technology. �200 is

the cost of this automatic braking system which could stop you running

into the vehicle in front. That was so weird. I just put my foot down

and the car came to a stop. 80% of crashes, all crashes occur like

this, below about 20mph. 80%! particular crash is one in four of

all crashes, one car drives into the back of another. Pedestrian

recognition can tell if you are about to hit a person. That is

amazing. That is another child fatality saved. I am going to be

testing a system heralded as the biggest life saver since the seat

belt. It is called electronic stability control. My mini is not

equipped with it. ECS works by stabilising the car, when you go

into a rapid lane change manoeuvre; the car will want to skid so it

monitors where you want to drive and where it is driving and brakes

individual wheels momentarily to stabilise the car. We have set up a

test scenario similar to this one caught on drivecam. Checking out

her lipstick the driver starts to drift into the hard shoulder. Not

noticing a stationery car. When she sees it she steers and the cargoes

into a skid. -- car goes into a skid. Our test driver will take

this car through a similar manoeuvre at 50mph. I don't know

whether to keep my eyes open or closed. Keep them open.. This is a

system that has fantastic life- saving capabilities. In one of the

most life-threatening crash types You will will be hearing more about

it. Let's hope you never need it. Since we started filming I have had

a black box hidden in my car. The boxs are being used by the

insurance industry to keep an eye on the driver. It scores the

driver's performance. The skid test in the Mini has produced a low

score. 5.26%, appalling. It's telling me the temperature, the

weather conditions, the time of day and what I was doing. I was braking,

quite hard. I was accelerating, I think that is what that is telling

me, and turning left. Yes, because we were doing really sharp left

turns. If a teenager was doing doughnuts or messing around in

their car. This would pick it up, give them a low score and it would

affect their insurance premium seriously. In Italy, where this

technology is in 800,000 cars the statistics suggest that accidents

have been reduced by 16%. I'm not entirely comfortable about being

tracked and monitored all the time. There is a civil liberties debate

about the black boxes. They are not the first box to divide opinion.

all the efforts that have been brought in to make us better and

safer drivers, the most controversial, and probably the

most hated, is the speed camera. It's to make money. It would help

reduce casualties. When you see a speed camera you slow down, when

you go past it you speed up again. When you see a sign you slow down.

They must reduce casualties. People see them and immediately brake and

there are more problems. They are a waste of time. There should be more

of them. I'm on my way to the site of first one.

NEWSREEL: Steven was the first British motorists to be convicted

on the evidence of an speed camera. Ex-police officer Roger Reynolds

erected the first speed camera in the UK. Have you concerns about

speed cameras, this gentleman introduced them to Great Britain.

You thought it was a good idea when you brought it in? It is a sound

idea. They work. They reduce speed. If you reduce speed, you improve

road safety. No argument about that. This road is renowned for serious

accidents at high-speed. When we started here, in 22 days we

recorded 23,000 people doing more than 65mph down this road. That is

1,000 people a day going over 65mph? 65mph in a 40mph. We are

talking about serious problems here. How much difference does the camera

make? In the first three years, 66% reduction in fatal accidents.

two-thirds? 16 people alive today because of these. 355 the number of

of reduction in serious injury accidents. Speed cameras are so

effective, why do people hate them so much? Professor Frank McKenna

has spent his career trying to understand why people speed. The

road safety brain of Britain. I want to ask him why so many people

see speed cameras as the local authorities way of make a fast

buck? If people don't believe in the motivations of the authorities

it's a challenge. If they can show these are crash sites that are

dangerous, people will follow them. Do they really work? If you look in

urban areas, then, in the past, the majority of people were braking the

30mph limit. Nowadays, the majority of people keep the 30mph limit.

People's speeds have come down over the years. Britain has 88,000 miles

of urban roads where 70% of all accidents happen. Urban areas have

their own set of dangers, cars negotiate junctions bumper to

bumper. Pedestrians and cyclists vie with car and buses for position

on crowded streets. Pedestrians account for a quarter of all road

deaths. The number killed increased to 12% last year. We might have

relatively safe road for car drivers for pedestrians we are one

of the least safe in Europe. The growing number of urban cyclists

are at risk on our streets. The problems of protecting them has

long troubled our urban planners. Now, a new concept in road safety

is transforming Britain's streets. I'm taking another lesson with

Chris Gilbert. We are going down London's Exhibition Road where

signs and road markings have been removed. Now, this is very

interesting. This is interesting. There are a series of pol les, no

road markings, no kerb, the pavement begins. Now, I'm anxious.

There seems to be a roundabout you can't tell. I'm stopping. Someone

is beeping behind me. It feels strange. It feels as if we are

driving on the wrong side of the road. It feels like it should be

the carriageway, it's not. The concept is called - naked street.

It started in Holland 15 years ago, there are now schemes all around

England. Coventry will be pulling out their last traffic light in the

city centre next year. I have been invited to an unusual venue by

urban designer Ben Hamilton Ballie. Why did you want me to come out

here, other than wanting to see me humilitating? It's an interesting

analogy. Fascinating to observe ice rinks when it's busy. People are

making split decisions about which way to go. How to stop. The less

rules there are, the more we rely on our intuitive skills as humans.

How do you stop though? Speed cameras, managed motorways, it's

about taking control away from humans. I'm intrigued to see an

idea that gives us back our independence. Ben's company has

designed the Coventry scheme for the council. The drivers are...

not doing that. You want me to walk backwards? It's fine. It doesn't

feel right. It doesn't feel right. It can cope with it. Speeds are low.

Drivers are anticipating and observing their surroundings in a

way that we saw on the ice rink. People are aware of what is around

you. A big bus is around us. I'm worried. Let's front it out. It's

weird to stand in the middle of a busy road. I'm not the only one who

feel that is way. It's the most confusing junction here. You are

like, is that a zebra crossing, is that a zebra crossing? Very

dangerous. Unsafe in my opinion. You don't know where is coming and

going. The sense of danger the pedestrians feel is the whole point.

It makes them more alert. When it first came in I thought it was

dangerous. Now I'm used to, it I like it without the traffic lights.

People look in different ways before they cross the road, even

though there are no traffic lights. It looks neat. It would slow me

down. It's causing concern with disability groups. What would you

have said if they asked you? Well... No. Straightaway. Just, no. Yes.

You are that adamant they don't work for blind people? They do not

work for blind people. This is what we haven't got. Icon tact with the

drivers. With all the noise around us, it's so hard to know that

people have stopped for you. There has been controversy when accidents

have happened, but the supporters of naked streets, here in Coventry,

and around the country, believe the statistics are on their side.

Statistics show that what we have done so far is safer. Before we

introduced the scheme there was one injury accident every six weeks.

Since the scheme has been introduced, one injury accident, on

average, every six months. We think it will produce a safer area as

well. More pleasant area for pedestrians? And a better area to

look at. All the areas we changed look better without the clutter.

You make a persuasive case. Good politician. Tut, tut... Although

shared space may be letting us make our own decision, the latest

technical invasion to become mandatory in cars may bring in an

era of unprecedented control. We are here to see Ecall, an simple

ideal with massive repercussions. Using the same technology as my box,

it dials the emergency services in the case of an accident. It's key

we get the emergency services to the accident, the scene of the

accident quickly and for them to know the details of the type of

accident, where the vehicle is located. Seconds count after an

accident, in terms of lives saved. Oh, my God! Listen to this. "thank

you for calling." This is sending data. Something has happened?

The device in the car has been triggered. If you are in an

accident and severely injured, they will call whoever it needs to call,

how many people are in the car and the the severity of the accident.

How much difference would it make to get the emergency services on

the way? It's giving them reliable information of location. That could

make a difference of about 50% in emergency response times. How soon

do you think it will be this will become common place? 2015 every new

car sold in Europe must have this device fitted. The UK Government

won't commit to funding the administration of the system here.

After looking at research, ministers aren't convinced that the

benefits outweigh the costs for the UK. As we come to the end of the

first part of our journey it seems the debate around Ecall reflects a

turning point for road safety. If it's installed in our cars all the

systems will be fitted to the mobile network. Some people feel it

will be the way of slipping monitoring technology into our cars

and could be used for other purposes other than road safety.

Car to car communications are possible for the first time. A step

that would be a quantum leap in safety technology. We know what is

around the corner. Where one vehicle is talking to another. We

will not believe in 20 years' time where we have moved from. With cars

talking to each other, not only could your cartel the emergencies

services that you have crashed, but also the cars following or that you

have encountered black ice, or tell the car around the bend that you've

stopped in the road. Imagine, if the cars on the M5 could have let

the others know they had encountered bad visibility? We have

difficult choices ahead between our civil liberties and our safety. If

we put safety first, what could that mean? What is the am mission

for all of this, bringing together the technologies, improvements in

car designs and roads? As a hope or vision we could envisage zero

fatalities. If that's a relistic expectation, the economic benefit

could be significant. The Department for Transport estimates

that the cost to the economy of crashes last year was �15.6 billion.

For 100 years we have (inaudible) death and serious injury. We have a

budget for the fire, ambulance and police to deal with. It what we

need to do is say, how can we stop this? It is about systematic

attention to the detail, to the vehicles, to the roads and the

driver behaviour. Many experts are anxious that this first increase in

casualties for many years is evidence that the focus on safety

is weakening and that deaths and serious injuries could continue to

rise. We all have to decide whether nearly 2,000 people dying on our

roads in one year is acceptable. know as many people as I do who

have died or been involved in a car accident, if I just think, it

should not happen. If you ask any individual what value they put on

the life of their son, mother, brother, father, you know, there

wouldn't be a number. There wouldn't be a figure. 90% of

accidents involve human error. Next week, we will be looking at us, the

drivers. What are these catastrophic errors we are making?

He is watching documentaries on his laptop. I'm tired right now.