Road Safety Trust celebrates a decade of impact and over £13 million awarded in grants

An independent impact study published today to mark The Road Safety Trust’s tenth anniversary will outline how the charity’s funding has helped build the evidence base for safer roads across the UK.

Launching at an event at the Wellcome Collection on 23rd March, the report from world-leading transport consultancy Systra outlines how Government is drawing on the Trust’s evidence base when shaping national road safety policy.

It also demonstrates how over £13 million invested across more than 120 projects over the past decade has directly influenced policing standards, vehicle regulation, and emergency response guidance.

The Department for Transport’s newly published Road Safety Strategy directly incorporates a number of Trust-funded research and interventions. It pledges support to roll out Project PRIME’s motorcycle safety markings nationwide and highlights the preventative power of the Data Sustains Life project.

In 2024, 29,467 people were killed or seriously injured on UK roads – underlining the continuing importance of Trust-funded research and innovation to improve road safety.

Building a National Evidence Base

Over the past ten years, the Trust has built a large, practical evidence base by funding projects that span many aspects of road safety – from engineering new road layouts and testing safety equipment, to educating young drivers and improving police enforcement.

Crucially, this research and knowledge is designed to be shared with road safety professionals to be used and deployed in practice. The report found that 17 of the Trust-funded projects it evaluated have already produced ready-to-use manuals, systems, and procedures that frontline organisations can implement immediately.

Another central finding of Systra’s evaluation is the role of the Trust as a catalyst in an important area of public health, frequently backing research and interventions that go on to improve road safety and save lives.

Key findings from the report include:

• Driving actionable change: 53 of the 74 completed projects assessed showed clear evidence of current or future positive impacts on road safety.
• Unlocking potential: 98% of surveyed grantees (40 out of 41) stated their work was unlikely to have proceeded without the Trust’s financial support.
• Targeting unexplored areas: The evaluation found the Trust frequently funds projects that focus on critical safety issues that lack clear ownership by other organisations.

Ruth Purdie OBE, Chief Executive of The Road Safety Trust said: “At the heart of our work is a clear vision: zero deaths and serious injuries on UK roads. Over the past decade, our funding has identified critical evidence gaps, supported groundbreaking research, and equipped those working across the road safety system with the practical tools to prevent harm and save lives.

“We are incredibly grateful to the researchers, practitioners, charities, public bodies and road safety professionals whose expertise has underpinned the projects highlighted in this report. Their commitment has helped build an evidence base that now informs national policy and improves road safety practice across the UK and beyond.

“But our work is far from done. As we look to the next decade, the Trust will continue to work in close partnership with government, emergency services, industry, charities, local authorities and academics to support the research and innovation needed to make our roads safer for everyone.”

High-impact Rollouts
Systra’s research highlights the Trust’s impact as being rooted in its ability to fund practical research and interventions that are adopted and rolled out at scale. Examples of Trust-funded projects that have been successfully deployed nationally or internationally include:

• HGV Direct Vision Standard (Safer Vehicles): To tackle deadly lorry blind spots, research by Loughborough University provided the critical evidence the United Nations needed to improve international safety standards. This work successfully secured a vital amendment to vehicle regulations – dictating exactly what drivers must be able to see – which an EU impact assessment has estimated could save hundreds of lives annually.
• The EXIT Project (Post-Collision Care): Emergency responders were historically trained to prioritise careful vehicle extrication to minimise casualty movement. The EXIT project proved that self-extrication reduces on-scene time by 30 minutes, and that the speed of extrication often matters more than minimal movement. This discovery updated clinical guidance from the Joint Royal Colleges Ambulance Liaison Committee, revised National Operational Guidance for Fire and Rescue Services, and integration into the College of Policing curriculum.
• Project PRIME (Rural Motorcycle Safety): Project PRIME piloted innovative road markings to help motorcycle riders safely negotiate challenging bends, successfully changing rider behaviours and improving safety outcomes that remain evident two years later. Six local authorities in Scotland are now preparing to embed the recommendations, and the Department for Transport has pledged support for pilot trials in new regions as part of its Road Safety Strategy.
• Operation Snap (Road Policing): Lincolnshire Police and Keele University examined how public dash cam footage could tackle road offences and reduce reoffending. Delivering 19 best-practice recommendations, the research provided UK police forces with an evidence-based framework to standardise the handling of citizen footage, transforming a patchwork of local initiatives into a consistent national approach to road policing.
• Data Sustains Life (Targeted Prevention): Led by University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, this initiative merges clinical records with standard crash statistics to uncover risk factors that police reports alone often miss. By analysing the actual medical consequences of collisions, road authorities can now design highly targeted, evidence-based safety interventions. This innovative methodology is already reshaping national policy, with the Department for Transport officially integrating the approach into its newly published January 2026 Road Safety Strategy.

The Road Safety Trust’s next Large Grants round will open shortly after Easter. With a dual theme of preventing harm linked to drug driving or motorised riding, and of safer vehicles – and with total funding of £750,000 available – it will continue the Trust’s investment in practical, lifesaving innovation.

The full Impact Study report, independently conducted by Systra, is available by clicking here.