Road incidents involving horses remain high during lockdown

New statistics released by The British Horse Society show that, despite the Covid-19 lockdown, road incidents involving horses are still high

Over the last year, 1,010 road incidents were reported to The British Horse Society (BHS) and incidents are showing little reduction despite the nationwide lockdown. The number of incidents has decreased by 3% on the previous year, but the number is still worryingly high – although the number of horses who have died on Britain’s roads has halved in the past 12 months.

The BHS has collated its statistics and believe that of the 1,010 incidents reported, 80% were a result of vehicles passing too closely and nearly half were caused by road rage. The charity has launched Horse i – a free safety app that allows riders to report incidents as soon as they get back to the yard, ensuring more accurate and timely data.

Similarly, the Dead Slow campaign has aimed to urge drivers to be more careful when passing horses through education. The main four messages for drivers are…

1. Slow to under 15mph
2. Be patient – don’t sound the horn or rev the engine
3. Pass the horse by at least a car’s width
4. Drive away slowly

Alan Hiscox, Director of Safety at The British Horse Society, said: “The number of incidents involving horses on Britain’s roads remain far too high, despite the time spent in lockdown over the past year. With 80% of the incidents reported to us having occurred due to vehicles passing too close, it’s evident that there’s still a great need for better education on how to safely pass horses on the road. It’s also deeply concerning that close to half of riders were subject to road rage. We all have a right to feel safe on the roads and no one should face abuse for exercising this right. Only one in 10 people report incidents to us and we hope the new BHS safety reporting app, Horse i will encourage more people to report these incidents to us.”

For more information, visit bhs.org.uk