Riders asked – PLEASE report accidents on the road

The British Horse Society is appealing to all riders, carriage drivers and horse owners to report road traffic accidents involving horses. The number of accident reports received by the BHS over the past year has dropped but sadly this is unlikely to be due to a reduction in the number of accidents.

BHS head of public affairs, Janet George, said: “If we are to push home the safety message – to Government, local authorities, motoring organisations and individual motorists (and horse riders), we need statistics. The police are now keeping separate records of horse-related accidents, but only if a rider (or motorist) is hurt. Many accidents result in serious injury or death to horses, but are not included in the official statistics.”

To make it easier to report accidents, the BHS has put its Accident Report form online and is appealing to everyone to make sure that accidents they know about – even if not personally involved – are reported. “Duplicated reports are easy to spot – we’d rather have three reports about one accident than none,” said Janet George.

The BHS online Accident Report Form can be found at www.bhs.org.uk/accidentreport.htm