This year’s Road Safety Week, organised by UK road safety charity Brake, will run from 16 to 22 November 2025, under the theme “Safe Vehicles Save Lives.”

This annual event represents Brake’s biggest national campaign of the year, focusing on a different area of road safety each year.

The focus this year is on raising awareness of the roles vehicles themselves play in both preventing crashes and reducing harm when collisions occur. 

Safe vehicles?

Brake frames the theme around the ‘Safe Systems’ approach to road safety, which holds that safety is shared: between roads, users, vehicles, speed, and how crashes are managed afterwards.

The charity argues that while driver behaviour and infrastructure are essential factors, modern vehicle technologies can offer substantial gains if more widely adopted and mandated. 

Some of the safety features and issues being highlighted include:

  • Driver-assistance systems: Technologies such as automated emergency braking, intelligent speed assistance, and lane-keeping aids. These help prevent crashes or reduce severity. 

  • Passive safety features include seatbelts, airbags, crumple zones, and other elements that protect occupants (and vulnerable road users) in the event of a collision. 

  • Vehicle roadworthiness: Ensuring that vehicles are properly maintained and checked before journeys (tyres, lights, brakes, etc.), and that safety features are used rather than disabled. 

  • Mandating latest safety tech: Brake is calling for the UK Government to make certain safety technologies compulsory in new vehicles, aligning with the EU’s Vehicle General Safety Regulations. 

Get involved

Brake will supply free action packs full of resources—toolkits, videos, and infographics—for schools, employers, trainers, road safety groups, and community groups to help spread the message.

Other components of this year’s campaign include:

  • Webinars for employers and emergency services on how to select and deploy safer vehicles. 

  • Memorial events and stories from road crash victims, to illustrate the human cost of unsafe vehicles and crashes. 

  • Fundraising through events such as The Big Tea Brake, which encourages communities to gather over tea and treats and raise money to support Brake’s services. 

The problem

Brake highlights that approximately 1,700 people die on UK roads each year, and another 30,000 suffer serious, life-changing injuries.

These numbers have shown little overall reduction in recent years. 

With road safety statistics flatlining, the charity argues that shifting the focus toward vehicle safety, both in design and maintenance, is an essential lever for progress. 

This year’s campaign makes clear calls for:

  • Government regulation to mandate safety technologies in new vehicles. 

  • Better awareness among vehicle owners and organisations about roadworthiness and the proper use of safety features.

  • Fleet and businesses to lead by example, purchasing and maintaining safer vehicles.

 

Education

“Safe Vehicles Save Lives” aims to shift public and institutional understanding.

Road safety is not only about laws and human behaviour, but also about the tools and technology built into the vehicles we drive.

Every time we get in a vehicle, the risk levels need not be inevitable.

With safer design, driver-assist technology, basic servicing, smarter regulation, as well as better education and training, many tragedies can and should be prevented.

Find out more about Road Safety Week here.