Edmund King, president of the AA Charitable Trust, described the plan as a long-overdue and radical reset of road safety policy, expressing hope that it would significantly reduce the human toll on Britain’s roads
The United Kingdom has announced a sweeping new road safety strategy, introducing stricter norms collectively referred to as “Dev’s Law”, named in memory of an eight-year-old Indian-origin boy who lost his life in a tragic road accident in 2018. The measures form part of an ambitious government plan to sharply reduce fatalities and serious injuries on British roads over the next decade.
Unveiled by the Department for Transport (DfT), the strategy aims to cut road deaths and serious injuries by 65 per cent by 2035, with an even higher reduction target of 70 per cent for children under the age of 16. Officials believe the reforms could save thousands of lives by addressing both driver behaviour and vehicle safety standards.
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A central feature of Dev’s Law is the mandatory installation of Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) in all new vehicles
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The technology detects potential collisions and automatically slows or stops a vehicle if the driver fails to react in time
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The move follows years of campaigning by Meera Naran, Dev’s mother and a senior lecturer at De Montfort University, who has argued that AEB could have prevented her son’s death on the M6 motorway near Birmingham
Beyond AEB, the strategy mandates 18 advanced vehicle safety technologies, including lane-keeping assistance, and establishes a new Road Safety Investigation Branch. This body will analyse collision trends and help shape evidence-based prevention policies.
The government is also targeting key causes of road deaths such as speeding, drink and drug driving, mobile phone use at the wheel, and failure to wear seatbelts. Measures include tougher action against uninsured drivers, vehicles without valid MOT certificates, and the growing misuse of illegal or “ghost” number plates designed to evade traffic cameras.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said the reforms mark decisive action to protect all road users, from young learners to older motorists seeking to maintain independence. Local transport minister Lilian Greenwood echoed the sentiment, stressing that no family should have to endure the loss of a loved one due to preventable road accidents.
Road safety experts and campaigners have welcomed the strategy’s adoption of the internationally recognised “Safe System” approach. This framework accepts that human error is inevitable, but insists that deaths and serious injuries are not, placing shared responsibility on drivers, vehicle manufacturers, planners and lawmakers.
