The Road Safety Strategy 2026 sets out sensible measures that, if enforced properly, would reduce harm. But the central problem is stark – enforcement without resources. The government keeps announcing ambition while stripping away the funding, training and legislative clarity needed to deliver it. That contradiction is where good intentions go to die.
The new Strategy should be a reset, not another rerun. Year after year, roads policing has been handed responsibility without the resources to deliver; fewer officers, less visibility and eroded specialist capability. That’s exactly what our Copped Enough campaign is about – a system that keeps asking police to do more with less, then acts surprised when outcomes don’t improve.
Section 163 is a case in point. Officers are told they have the power to stop vehicles, yet the law does not properly support them to do so safely in modern roadside conditions with high‑speed carriageways, distracted drivers and increasing hostility at the roadside. A power you cannot confidently enact is not a meaningful power. The message on paper is clear; the reality on the hard shoulder is anything near to it.
There is a widening gap between virtue signalling and delivery. Strategies speak fluently about safety outcomes, but the system fails to invest in the people asked to make those outcomes real. Roads policing has been pared back over years, while expectations have multiplied. Every new expectation placed on officers without funding and support makes enforcement weaker, not stronger.
Too often, road safety policy assumes an enforcement capacity that simply does not exist. Announcements cannot operate breathalysers, secure collisions, investigate fatalities, or seize vehicles. You cannot reduce deaths on the road by announcement alone. Without sustained investment in specialist training, equipment and coordination with the CPS and courts, the new Strategy risks promising what frontline officers cannot deliver.
Lowering drink drive limits may be well intentioned, but without matching enforcement capacity it risks increasing drivers who choose to flee rather than engage. That directly increases danger for officers and the public.
If the government is serious about road safety and Vision Zero, it must be honest about what works: properly paid, properly trained officers, backed by investment, not rhetoric. Without that strategies are ultimately meaningless because the same tragedies will persist and repeat.
The human consequences are real. When officers hesitate because the law leaves them exposed – uncertain powers, unclear guidance or inadequate backing – dangerous drivers stay on the road. That is how good intentions turn into poor outcomes.
This is not a critique of intent. The aims are right. But success requires three non‑negotiables: targeted investment in roads policing, modernised training and technology and legal clarity that matches today’s roadside risks. Align words with means and measure success not by announcements but by fewer collisions, fewer serious injuries and fewer bereaved families. That is the difference between aspiration and accountability, and the only route to safer roads in 2026.
