The vast majority of deaths on Britain’s roads last year were the result of basic driver errors, a Department for Transport report has found.

Simple mistakes were responsible for far more fatal crashes than deliberate breaches of traffic laws, such as breaking the speed limit or ignoring red traffic lights.

The RAC Foundation said that the figures underlined the need for better driver education and more traffic police, rather than relying on cameras to keep roads safe.

The most common cause of a fatal crash was loss of control of a vehicle, which was identified by police in 35 per cent of reports. More than 600 deaths, almost a fifth of the total of 3,172, were caused by drivers failing to look properly.

Travelling too fast for the conditions, but within the speed limit, was cited as a factor in 18 per cent of reports. Exceeding the speed limit was a factor in 14 per cent of deaths, up from 12 per cent in 2005.

Sheila Rainger, the RAC Foundation’s head of campaigns, said: “While a camera can clock someone a few miles over the limit, it cannot deter drink, drugged or dangerous driving, or give advice to those whose driving is not up to scratch.

“We must look to more innovative educational solutions, a return to on-road enforcement by traffic police and a sustained attempt to build positive driver attitudes, as the means to cut casualty numbers.”

Figures on crashes involving foreign vehicles were included for the first time in the annual road safety report.

Foreign lorries were involved in 1,041 crashes on British roads, resulting in 44 deaths, 119 serious injuries and 1,203 slight injuries.

The number of crashes was slightly down on 2005, but there was a sharp rise in deaths from 33 to 44.

The department published a separate report showing a huge rise in the number of foreign lorries on Britain’s roads, up fourfold in a decade from 480,000 in 1996 to more than 1.5 million last year.

Road safety groups called for more roadside checks on foreign lorries and said they should be required to fit “blind spot” mirrors to reduce the risk of “sideswipes”, in which drivers on the left of the cab pull out into the path of another vehicle. Foreign lorries were involved in 443 sideswipes in 2005.

Half of the foreign lorries checked last year by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency had safety faults that could have resulted in crashes.

Lorries from Eastern Europe were the worst offenders: prohibition notices were placed on 62 per cent of those inspected from the Czech Republic, 61 per cent from Romania, 55 per cent from Latvia, 52 per cent from Bulgaria and 49 per cent from Poland.

Foreign lorry drivers were more than twice as likely as British drivers to exceed the maximum time spent behind the wheel without a break. More than 37 per cent of drivers of lorries registered in Greece had exceeded that limit, compared to 9 per cent of British drivers.

Foreign lorries were more likely to be dangerously overloaded, with a third of those from Spain, Portugal and the Republic of Ireland found to be over the weight limit.

The Department for Transport said that it would introduce on-the-spot penalties of up to £200 for foreign drivers early next year.

The road safety report revealed that more than one in ten crashes last year involved a hit-and-run driver. There were 21,006 crashes resulting in death and injury last year that involved a driver who failed to stop, compared with 18,357 in 1997.

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