Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain: Quarterly Provisional Estimates Q2 2011

The statistics are available on the DfT website.

The key findings from the Quarterly Provisional Estimates Q2 2011 include:

- There were 1,910 people killed and 24,560 killed or seriously injured (KSI), in reported road accidents in the year ending June 2011. This represents a fall of 4 per cent for both severities

compared to the previous 12 month period.

- There were 206,850 casualties (slight injuries, serious injuries and fatalities), 5 per cent less than the year ending June 2010.

- Total reported child casualties (ages 0-15) fell by 2 per cent to 19,980 with those killed or seriously injured down 4 per cent (2,470), compared with the year ending June 2010.

- The number of injury road accidents reported to the police fell by 5 per cent (to 152,960) and the number of fatal accidents by 3 per cent (to 1,790) compared with the 12-month period ending

June 2010.

- Motor vehicle traffic levels fell by 0.8 per cent compared to the 12 month period ending June 2010.

PACTS comments:

"Commenting on the publication by the Department for Transport this morning of provisional road casualty figures to June 2011, Robert Gifford, Executive Director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety, said “Obviously it is good to know that in the year July 2010 to June 2011 road deaths overall were down. However, the good news disguises the fact that for the first two quarters of 2011 deaths actually rose."

“In January to March, the rise was 6% and in April to June it was 7%. While we should be careful about drawing too strong a conclusion from two quarters, this nevertheless should sound alarm bells for Ministers. The rise in deaths occurred at a time when the economy continued to flatline. While some of the overall fall in deaths over the last few years was related to the recession, this rise suggests that the key messages about safe road use are having less effect among road users. We must hope that the new strategic framework for road safety will help to confirm the government’s commitment to making roads safer for all classes of road user. Ministers need to give a firm lead on this issue, demonstrating political leadership."

“Also of concern is information in Table RAS45008 showing a steady rise in all injuries involving cyclists. These have risen in 9 of the last 14 quarters. When we saw similar rises in motorcycling casualties in the early 2000s, the government set up a Motorcycle Advisory Group to look at how to improve their safety. Perhaps we need a similar group to assess how to improve cycle safety and maintain the steady increase in cycle usage.”

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