Safety Groups Urge U.K. Motorists to Insist on AEB

U.K. road-safety and motor-industry bodies are urging private and fleet car buyers to insist on autonomous emergency braking, a measure they say could save hundreds of lives.

If more car buyers insisted on AEB systems, vehicle-safety analyst Thatcham Research calculates, the technology could prevent 1,100 deaths and 122,860 casualties in the U.K. over the next 10 years, saving society £138 million ($185 million).

The Ministry for Transport reported 1,792 U.K. road deaths in 2016, an increase of 4% from 2015 and the highest annual total since 2011. The ministry calls the rise “not statistically significant.”

There were 24,101 people seriously injured and 181,384 casualties of all degrees, about 3% fewer than in 2015 and the lowest level on record.

Motor traffic levels increased 2.2%.

Thatcham CEO Peter Shaw says there’s an urgent need to change the consumer and fleet mindset around car safety, especially when AEB can cost as little as £200 ($269) per vehicle.

“Safety should be a deal-breaker, not a nice-to-have,” he says in a statement. “If it doesn’t have AEB, it shouldn’t be a sale.”

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents says the increase in fatalities shows a need for a renewed push for safety.

“When there’s an increase in traffic with economic growth, generally casualty statistics do tend to go up, but this in no way justifies these shocking figures,” says Nick Lloyd, the group’s road-safety manager.

Another highway-safety group, IAM RoadSmart, says although cars are getting safer, careless human behavior and increasing traffic levels are offsetting this.

“With six years without progress, it is clear that we have an increasingly complex picture of good news such as safer cars and investment in new roads being canceled out by more traffic and a hard core of human behavior issues that are the most difficult to tackle,” Neil Greig, the group’s policy and research director, says in a statement.

“Accelerating the uptake of AEB-equipped cars and promoting best practice in driving for work are just two examples where quick gains could be made.”