ICMIF member and rural insurer NFU Mutual (UK) has today published a Code for Countryside Roads to tackle the tragic and disproportionate loss of life on the UK’s rural roads.

NFU Mutual and its campaign partners launched the Code for Countryside Roads as exclusive analysis of official DfT figures shows that there are 70% more deaths on rural roads than urban highways, despite there being fewer than half the number of collisions.

NFU Mutual’s 2024 Rural Road Safety Report found that collisions on rural roads are around four times more likely to result in a fatality.

In 2023, an average of one in every 32 collisions (969 of 31,183) on rural highways resulted in a death, compared to one in every 122 (571 of 69,706) on urban roads.

NFU Mutual says the figures reflect a persistent trend of disproportionate danger on rural roads and the tragic and avoidable loss of hundreds of lives each year in the UK’s countryside. To help guide and advise everyone on how to use rural roads safely, NFU Mutual has partnered with the four UK farming unions, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) Farm Safety Foundation, British Horse Society and Older Drivers Forum to create a Code for Countryside Roads which can be downloaded and printed for everyone to use.

Speaking about the new Code, Nick Turner, Chief Executive of NFU Mutual and ICMIF Board Member, said: “Rural roads are the arteries of our countryside, vital to the rural economy and serving to connect us all to the benefits of the great outdoors.

“It is therefore all the more concerning that each year a vastly disproportionate number of lives are lost on rural roads. As the leading rural insurer with customers and [NFU Mutual] Agents living and working in rural communities across the UK, we are keenly aware of the importance of countryside roads and the distress and disruption caused by collisions – particularly on the sad occasions where a life is lost.”

Turner continued: “Every road death is an avoidable tragedy, and every road user has a responsibility to protect themselves and others, but the disparity in safety between urban and rural roads and the higher risk shouldered by vulnerable road users suggests that more can be done.

“That is why NFU Mutual has been campaigning for several years to improve rural road safety by raising awareness of the risks inherent to countryside roads, and why we are proud to publish a Code for Countryside Roads to provide a clear guide on how people should use rural roads.

“The Code has been developed in consultation with our campaign partners and based on feedback from over 700 members of the public. It is available to everyone, free of charge, on the NFU Mutual website and we hope it will help steer a course towards safer rural roads for all,” Turner concluded.

Access, download and print the Code for Countryside Roads at www.nfumutual.co.uk/ruralroads.