More than 300 people in the UK are alive today or have avoided the prospect of a lifetime of special care because just 15 roads have had simple improvements put in place, according to this year's tracking survey by the Road Safety Foundation. On these 15 roads alone, fatal and serious crashes dropped 62% from 494 to 190.

Simple Measures Save Lives shows that elementary safety measures are paying back the costs of investment in an average of 10 weeks. The savings are worth over £50 million annually to emergency services, the NHS, local authority care, businesses and families.

Six thousand lives could be saved on Britain's roads over the next ten years if just a fraction of the money currently spent on road maintenance was provided for infrastructure improvements.

Britain loses up to £30 billion (2.3% GDP) annually in the cost of road crashes, most of which falls on busy, targetable motorways and main roads according to Saving Lives, Saving Money: the costs and benefits of achieving safe roads, a report for the RAC Foundation by the Road Safety Foundation.

The commitment, innovation and clear achievement in reducing deaths and serious injuries on the UK's road network by the Road Safety Foundation received formal recognition today.

The Foundation was presented with a Prince Michael International Road Safety Award in recognition of its important role in establishing a respected, systematic method of assessing roads and constructively helping road authorities to make their roads safe.

Britain's finances may be exhausted but savings in the cost of road crashes costing 1.5% of GDP and worth £18bn annually are readily achievable. The high costs of emergency services, hospitals and long term care for the disabled can often be avoided through little more than the cost of a pot of paint, according to the annual road tracking survey carried out by the Road Safety Foundation - the largest analysis of its type anywhere in the world, covering 28,000 miles. The Saving Lives for Less report, which shows where the high risk roads on which road trauma and high costs are concentrated, will be unveiled today.

Less than a third of Europe's major trading road routes meet the best possible safety standard to which EU nations have committed themselves on the network, according to an online digital report published today by EuroRAP. 

The report for the first time provides comprehensive analysis of the safety of Europes TEN-T road network and highlights wide regional variations in safety standards and investment. Overall, the trans-European road network accounts for around 20,000 deaths and serious injuries each year, which EuroRAP estimates costs EU economies EUR10bn annually, excluding the cost of resulting traffic delays.