UK drivers to see major change to road signs as one word to be removed

Another word will replace “accidents”

According to the government, this is part of a wider initiative to reduce deaths and serious injuries on Britain's roads by 65% over the next nine years.

The change in road signage come as part of a new Road Safety Strategy that was published earlier this month by the Department for Transport.

The proposed measures will remain under consideration until March, and ministers are emphasising that “language matters” as a means to improving road safety, reducing confusion, and supporting environmental goals.

The updated terminology is a key change, as it mandates new bilingual standards in Wales, and introduces new signs for electric vehicles.

As per new regulations, Wales would make it a requirement for any new or renewed traffic sign to place the Welsh language text in a position to be read first.

The replacement of the word “accident” with “collision” is an example of this change.

“Accident” can imply events that are unavoidable or without fault. On the other hand, “collision” focuses on the event rather than the inevitability, which is the reason for this change in terminology.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has been doing this since 2022, while two years ago, police were authorised to do the same on temporary road signage and in-car digital message boards.

The government has put forward another measure which is the introduction of multilingual signs for foreign HGV drivers.

A foreign vehicle's origin is detected thanks to an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology that is used by these signs, which will display messages in languages including Polish, Romanian, German, and French.