Comments on Highway Code consultation document
April 06
From Brake, the national road safety charity
Name/Organisation
Email address
Mary Williams OBE, chief executive
mwilliams@brake.org.uk
Brake welcomes the opportunity to respond to this important consultation, which includes some
useful additions to the Code. Given the obvious constraints on the length of the Code and the need
for it to be clear and simple, we have attempted to make our suggested changes concise and to
have clearly explained the rationale behind our proposals. Our proposals are motivated by our
ethos to stop death and injury on roads, in light of the continued 9 deaths a day on British roads.
All queries, please contact Cathy Keeler, policy director on, 01484 559909 or
ckeeler@brake.org.uk
Rule /
page no
7, page 6
56, p17
80, p21
Suggested change
The age when they can do this is
different for each child, but the
Department for Transport advises that
no child should be allowed out without
a responsible adult until they are at
least 8, sometimes older depending
on their development and the level of
danger on roads around their home.
Light coloured or fluorescent
clothing which helps other road
users to see you in daylight and
poor light, such as a high visibility
vest or jacket.
REPLACE: Strong boots, gloves and
suitable clothing may help to protect
you if you fall off.
WITH: Wear boots, gloves, jacket and
trousers (or equivalent all in one)
made out of toughened leather, or an
equivalent man-made protective
material. They can protect you in a
crash.
82, p22
REPLACE: Wear fluorescent clothing
or strips
WITH: Wear a fluorescent jacket or
vest.
84, p22
The Manoeuvring section for
Reason
It is important to give much clearer
instructions to parents here, to protect young
children. There are many cases of children
aged under 8 being allowed out alone or with
older children who don’t take care of them
properly.
It is useful to encourage cyclists to wear a
vest or jacket, otherwise they may think that
an accessory is adequate. A vest or jacket is
much more effective.
The current text is wishy washy and not very
directional. Protective clothing can prevent
bikers bleeding to death from skin loss, and
also protect them from a range of other
serious and sometimes fatal injuries. There
are many bikers who do not dress
appropriately so it is useful if the Highway
Code can take a stronger lead on helping
these bikers to change their behaviour. If the
DSA is worried about the instructional nature
of starting the new sentence with the word
‘Wear’, please note that you do this already in
rule 82 in relation to fluorescent clothing –
see below.
Strips are far less visible than a jacket or vest
and motorcyclists shouldn’t see it as a
straight choice. See earlier comment on
cyclist visibility. If you want to mention strips,
it should be made clear they create a less
visual effect as they use much less material.
It is surprising that the Highway Code has an
motorcyclists is woefully inadequate.
See comments on right.
extensive section for cyclists on manoeuvring
at road junctions, and on roundabouts etc,
but there is no equivalent section for
motorcyclists. While we recognise that the
DSA has incorporated advice to motorcyclists
into the section for drivers (eg. rule 154
includes advice on positioning on right hand
bends), we think that this is a wrong choice.
There are particular manoeuvring ‘hot spots’
for bikers that are worthy of their own advice.
For example: riding too close to the middle of
a road on a right hand bend (risking being hit
by a vehicle coming in the other direction);
riding up between lanes of queuing traffic
(risking being hit by a vehicle that swerves to
change lanes etc); riding too close or on the
left hand side of large vehicles (particularly on
roundabouts or at junctions); and riding too
close to the edge of a road (increasing the
risk of being hit by a vehicle pulling out of a
junction).
87, p23
REPLACE: The most effective ways
to counter sleepiness are to drink, for
example, two cups of caffeinated
coffee and to take a short nap.
WITH: The most effective way to
counter sleepiness is to sleep. Take a
short nap (10-15 minutes). If you still
don’t feel refreshed, sleep for longer.
Drinking caffeine just before you take
your nap (unless you cannot for
medical reasons) can help you feel
alert when you wake up, but its effects
are only temporary.
93, p25
REPLACE: Make sure any heavy or
sharp objects and any animals are
secured safely.
WITH: Make sure any objects or
animals you are carrying are secured
safely. Dogs should be strapped in
with a special car harness or behind a
grill. Heavy or sharp objects should be
strapped down, even if in a boot. Put
small items such as bags or umbrellas
in a boot or on the floor if there is no
boot, as they can also be dangerous
in a crash.
REPLACE: It is not recommended at
high speed.
WITH: It is dangerous to try to merge
in turn at higher speeds and this
should not be attempted.
See comments right
The advice currently proposed does not
distinguish between the critical value of sleep,
and the very limited value of caffeine (a shortterm, pick-me-up drug, which some people
are allergic or unable to drink for medical
reasons). While research from Loughborough
University shows that caffeine intake followed
by a nap (to give the caffeine chance to enter
your blood stream) is effective, the public
advice has to emphasise sleep (which is the
primary solution for tiredness) and recognise
that some people (including pregnant women
and people with certain medical conditions)
do not drink caffeine.
It isn’t just heavy or sharp objects that are a
problem.
Even an umbrella can be a danger in a crash.
Dogs are a particular problem and worthy of
explaining how to restrain them.
It’s also worth explaining to people that just
putting something heavy or sharp in the boot
is not enough if there is no bulk head
between the boot and the seats.
128, p37
138, p39
‘It is not recommended’ is weak. The
sentence needed firming up, or not putting in
at all, as the previous sentence includes the
word ‘only’.
This section includes no explanation of
dangerous or careless driving, but does give
one example of driving without reasonable
consideration for others (don’t throw things
out the window). We can understand the
value of inserting this example in this section,
143, p40
REPLACE: find a safe place to stop
first or use the voicemail facility.
WITH: Put your phone on voice mail
and check your messages when you
stop. Never text or read texts while
driving.
144, p41
REPLACE: Do not be distracted by
maps or screen based information
WITH: Do not look at maps or screen
based information.
152, p43
See comment right
157, p45
Start this section with:
Overtaking, particularly if you have to
move into a lane meant for on-coming
traffic, must only be done with
extreme caution. You should avoid
overtaking if the vehicle in front is
making good progress within the
speed limit and for the conditions.
157, p45
REPLACE: Only overtaken when it is
safe to do so
WITH: Only overtaken when it is safe
to do so and you can do so within the
speed limit.
157, p45
REPLACE: move quickly past the
vehicle you are overtaking, once you
have started to overtake.
WITH: drive smoothly and within the
speed limit past the vehicle you are
overtaking once you have started to
but the section as a whole now looks odd, as
it does not include examples of either
dangerous or careless driving which are
much more serious offences and much more
likely to kill.
The current proposed advice could be easily
misinterpreted to mean that motorists should
pull over if their phone starts to ring. This is a
dangerous idea, as it is likely that it will be
frequently unsafe to pull over at precisely the
moment a phone starts to ring. It also
encourages drivers to pull up quickly in order
to answer their phone before it stops ringing!
It is important that information about texting is
also included, as currently your information is
only about calls.
The word ‘distracted’ is ambiguous as it
refers to the effect, not the activity. You
actually mean, and should say, that people
shouldn’t look at maps or screens while
driving.
This section should refer to the need for
drivers of these types of vehicles to be
licensed. There is a particular problem of
children using quad bikes sometimes on
public roads.
A section on overtaking is essential and
valued in the Highway Code. It is so
important, from a safety perspective, that it
deserves a preface. Overtaking at speed
carries inherent risks, and frequently causes
death, particularly on fast and often bendy
and hilly rural roads.
Frequently, drivers who cause these deaths
when overtaking because they wish to break
the speed limit or drive too fast for the
conditions.
Being able to overtake within the speed limit
for a road is a critical safety criteria for
overtaking. If a driver has to break a speed
limit to overtake then they may endanger
other road users (including vulnerable road
users) and it is unlikely that their overtaking
manoeuvre was necessary in the first place
(as it implies that they are overtaking a
vehicle that is already travelling at a
reasonable speed). Brake is often told by
motorists and the more extreme motoring
organisations that you don’t have to comply
with speed limits when overtaking (because,
they point out, the Highway Code doesn’t say
you do). Please add this in as a priority as it
is something that we constantly come up
against.
‘Move quickly’ could be misinterpreted as
‘drive fast, even if this means breaking the
speed limit’.
157, p45
163, p47
189, p55
overtake.
REPLACE: last bullet point
WITH: Give motorcyclists, cyclists,
pedestrians (if there is no pavement)
and horse riders at least as much
room as you would a car when
overtaking. Go wide and slow. If
necessary, hold back until it is safe to
overtake slowly.
REPLACE: second sentence
WITH: Check your mirrors frequently,
and if a long queue has developed
behind you, indicate left and pull in
where it is safe to do so, in a lay by or
on a long straight stretch, so it is
possible for traffic to pass you safely.
See comment opposite and
replace:
Look out for people waiting to cross
and be ready to slow down or stop to
let them cross
WITH:
Look out for people waiting to cross
and be ready to stop to let them cross
Drive at a slow speed that would
enable you to stop in time if someone
did step onto the crossing.
202, p58
Replace the last sentence with:
Drive at 20mph or slower until you are
clear of the area.
204, p58
Add onto the end of this rule:
If you see a school crossing patrol on
a pavement, slow down to a speed
that would enable you to stop in time if
the school crossing patrol steps into
the road.
It is an error to leave out pedestrians – there
are many rural communities that do not have
the benefit of pavements and where children
and adults on foot are constantly overtaken
by cars, often at speeds which feel
threatening and are dangerous, and often on
narrow roads where the pedestrians may be
literally pinned against a stone wall to survive.
Drivers generally know to drive slowly past
horse to prevent them being startled, but
don’t know that it is just as important to drive
dead slowly past cyclists and pedestrians in
the road – cyclists may wobble, and children
on foot may fall over.
The DSA may also wish to reconsider your
advice to leave as much room as you ‘would
a car’. On narrow rural roads this is going to
be impossible. It’s more important on these
types of roads to drive dead slowly past any
vulnerable road users, so they are not
intimidated nor endangered.
The current text doesn’t distinguish between
the safety of you, as the slower driver, and
the safety of the vehicles that will have to
pass you. There is no point pulling in
somewhere that is safe for you, but which
gives no safe space for other traffic to
overtake.
Without researching it, Brake is unclear on
the law relating to drivers stopping for
pedestrians at zebra crossings. If the law only
says that pedestrians must have already
stepped onto a crossing for drivers to be
required to stop, then this is an inadequate
law (as it is obviously potentially dangerous
for the pedestrian). In that case, the law
needs changing and rule 189 should be
rewritten as stated opposite.
However, if the law currently requires drivers
to stop to let pedestrians cross if they are
obviously displaying an intention to do so by
standing on the kerb at the edge of the
crossing, then rule 189 is inadequate and
should be made clearer, and written more in
favour of pedestrians.
The current text says ‘very slowly’ – this is
ambiguous. Given that, in rule 201, the Code
says that at 20mph you have a low chance of
killing a pedestrian you hit, and many local
authorities are now reducing limits around
schools, it is appropriate to be more specific
in rule 202.
The rationale for this addition is similar to the
rationale behind our suggested change to
rule 189.
In addition, it is worth noting that many school
crossing patrols have reported widespread
intimidation recently and some have been
205, p58
At the end of the first sentence,
add:
….on either side.
215
Add onto the end of this rule:
If you are driving on a bendy narrow
road and a large vehicle is coming
towards you from the other direction
on a tight bend, be prepared to slow
down or stop to allow the large vehicle
to negotiate the bend before you enter
the bend.
Add on to this rule, or create an
additional rule, reading:
If considering overtaking a large
vehicle, ensure you can see far
enough ahead to complete your
manoeuvre safely, and take into
account how much longer it will take
to overtake the large vehicle
compared with overtaking a car. Also
bear in mind that large vehicles may
be slow moving on inclines, but speed
up considerably when travelling down
hill. Also, bear in mind that large
vehicles can create a lot of spray,
which may hit your windscreen, and
veer in high winds.
Add on to the first sentence of this
rule
… or the temperature is likely to be
below 0 degrees centigrade, or
weather reports warn of ice.
216
225, p64
261, p72
269, p74
Add on to first sentence
…and you can do so safely within the
speed limit of 70mph.
Replace the bullet point
‘ensure that passengers keep away
from the carriageway and hard
shoulder, and that children are kept
under control’
WITH:
‘ensure that passengers keep away
from the carriageway and hard
shoulder, and that children are kept
under control, including holding hands
of children aged under 8, or older
children with learning disabilities, at all
times’
seriously injured and at least one fatally so.
Cyclists and motorcyclists may overtake on
either side, particularly if there is a cycle lane.
There is a real problem of drivers forgetting
that cyclists and motorbikers may be on the
inside of their vehicle, and even veering into
cycle lanes. This problem is common in slow
moving traffic caught in traffic jams as
cyclists, in particular, may be travelling faster
than the traffic and on the inside.
Large vehicles take up a lot of space when
negotiating tight bends, as well as junctions.
The current text only covers junctions.
It takes experience to know when it is safe to
overtake a slow moving large vehicle. This
suggested addition aims to address this
potentially lethal manoeuvre.
Ice is difficult to see, and difficult to know it is
there. It may be patchy as well. It is also
common and the cause of fatalities when
drivers drive too fast for the conditions, often
on bends resulting in skids. Most modern
cars have a temperature gauge. Drivers
should be encouraged to look at them and
use this information to help inform their
driving behaviour, and to listen to weather
reports carefully for ice.
As in rule 157, we believe it is essential that
the DSA spells out the importance of not
breaking the speed limit when overtaking.
There is only one way to keep young children
under control, and that is to hold their hands
at all times.
P108
Tyre tread advice (top of page 108):
See comment opposite
P108
Tyre pressure advice
See comment opposite
P111
Safety Code for New Drivers
The code frequently gives safety guidance,
above and beyond legal requirements. There
is scope in this section to do so. This section
only talks about minimum statutory
requirements for tyre tread. It should be
rewritten to explain that tyre treads of this
minimum are dangerous in wet or icy
conditions. It is recommended to change
tyres well before they reach this minimum.
It would be useful to tell drivers how to check
their tyres when cold. Eg. by driving to their
nearest garage, or by buying and using a
hand held gauge. This advice could also
include telling drivers to check for warning
lights about low tyre pressure on their dash
boards – many modern vehicles have these
warning lights.
Brake is pleased about this addition, but we
do not find it well worded. It would benefit
from being right at the front of the guide (as
novice/new drivers are more likely to read it
than anyone else and it is somewhat lost at
the end) and from being far more ‘to the
point’. It would also benefit from a few
grammatical improvements and general
tightening up of its introduction.
Please see Brake’s Pledge to Drive Safely on
www.brake.org.uk for an example of
language that is more to the point, and
therefore more likely to be read by new
drivers. A version that would work for young
drivers is suggested below:

Sober Up - 'just say no' to alcohol and drugs if
driving. Not even one drink or joint

Slow Up - abide by limits and only overtake if
totally safe. Slow right down for bendy country
roads (there could be someone round the
corner) and in towns (there will be kids about)


Belt Up – and check all passengers have too.

Look Up - look out and slow down for people
on bikes, horses and foot

Wise Up - if it's night, bright, or bad weather,
go slower. Avoid driving if you can

Buck Up - calm yourself, and don’t get
distracted by, or show off, to passengers.
Never race with other drivers


Shut Up - switch your phone to voicemail

Check Up - check brakes, tyres, lights mirrors
and windows

Avoid driving powerful or sporty vehicles
unless you have learnt in one. If you want to
practice high-speed driving skills, go to a race
Wake Up - never drive tired and take breaks
every two hours on long journeys
Back Up - from the vehicle in front - it's your
braking space in a crisis
track, don’t do it on roads.
P113
Useful websites
Add:
Brake, the road safety charity
www.brake.org.uk
RoSPA, the safety charity
www.rospa.org.uk
Think!
www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk
GENERAL COMMENT THAT
APPLIES THROUGHOUT
Drivers who drive for work purposes
Replace use of the word accident with
the word crash.
End/
It is strange to only list first aid websites, and
not road safety websites that are also run by
well-established charities giving good advice.
The three suggested obvious are perhaps the
three most obvious ones to list, although the
list could also include Road Safety Scotland
and RoadPeace, for example.
The HSE and the DfT have published
guidance (Driving at Work) for employers who
use vehicles, explaining that they have a duty
of care to ensure their vehicles are well
maintained and driven safely. It would be well
worth the Code including a rule telling drivers
that if they drive for work they must not follow
an instruction by an employer that endangers
their safety or the safety of other road users.
For example, if they are tired, but their
employer tells them to drive on in order to get
somewhere on time, they must not do this.
Accident infers that no-one is to blame and is
non-specific. It is also highly offensive to
many victims of road crashes and is not used
in literature for people bereaved or injured in
road crashes. Use crash instead – it has a
specific, relevant meaning and is a shorter
word.