The Government has unveiled plans for the creation of a dedicated crash investigation body for road traffic, including 'those involving self-driving vehicles'.
The move would put the road network on a par with rail, maritime and aviation transport, all of which have 'accident investigation' branches.
A consultation on the proposal to set up a Road Collision Investigation Branch (RCIB) has been launched by the Department for Transport (DfT).
'An RCIB would carry out thematic investigations and probe specific incidents of concern to establish the causes of collisions and make independent safety recommendations to help further improve road safety across the country,' DfT officials said.
The move comes after a £500,000 trial of the concept launched in 2018 involving the RAC Foundation and three police forces, which involved dedicated teams carrying out in-depth research in selected cases.
Roads minister Baroness Vere said: 'A new investigation branch would play a huge role in this work by identifying the underlying causes of road traffic collisions, so we can take action to prevent them from happening again.
'It would also provide us with vital insight as we continue to modernise our road network to ensure better, greener and safer journeys.'
RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: 'After excellent progress across many years, sustained road safety improvement has been hard to achieve over the past decade, both in the UK and further afield.
'We should be challenging ourselves on whether we are understanding all we can about the causes of road collisions and what could be done to prevent them – our research to date suggests that more could be learnt – which is why today’s consultation is so important and so welcome.'
The consultation will run until 9 December 2021.
Independent bodies are longstanding features of accident investigation practice in the UK. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has been operating since 1915, while the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) and Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) have operated since 1989 and 2005 respectively.
