New figures show the number of road deaths continues to remain largely unchanged since 2010 – despite a slight fall in fatalities during 2018.
The DfT’s annual casualty statistics, published on 25 July, show 1,782 people were killed on roads in Great Britain last year – down 1% from the 1,793 reported in 2017.
However, the 2018 figure is similar to those recorded since 2012 – when there were 1,754 road deaths.
Stakeholders have responded to the statistics with concern – with the RAC saying the figures make for ‘stark reading’ – and are calling on the Government to take action.
The DfT stats also show there were 25,484 serious injuries in 2018 – up by 3% from 2017 (24,831). However, the DfT points out that this figure is not comparable to earlier years due to changes in casualty reporting methods, introduced in 2016.
In contrast, the total number of road casualties fell to its lowest level in 2018 – down 6% to 160,378.
Fatalities by road user type
In 2018, car occupants accounted for 44% of road deaths (777), pedestrians 25% (454), motorcyclists 20% (354) and pedal cyclists 6% (99).
In terms of year-on-year comparisons, there was positive news for active travel – with a 3% fall in the number of pedestrians killed and a 2% fall in cyclists’ deaths.
There was also a 1% fall in the number of car occupant deaths – however, the number of motorcycle deaths rose by 1%.
Looking at age, there were 48 child deaths in 2018, the same as in 2017. The DfT says child fatalities have fluctuated between 48 and 69 between 2013 to 2018 – with no clear trend.
The number of young person fatalities (aged 17-24 years) also remained the same as in 2017 – with 279 fatalities.
However, there was a 5% rise in the number of deaths among older road users (aged 60 years and over) – from 559 in 2017 to 586 in 2018.
Who should be held accountable for this failure to deliver improvements despite millions being spent every year The responsibility for road safety delivery is so devolved that that there is no person or authority in charge and we have a system that is almost incapable of delivering any change except for speed controls and more prosecution. Why should we expect the roads to get safer when nothing new is being done to make it happen. Road safety effort is focused almost entirely on reducing vehicle speed instead of understanding why collisions are occurring and taking the steps needed to prevent them.
We don’t have mandatory eyesight testing
We don’t have a post test driver road safety education process in place
We don’t bother to mark the roads as a standard to show drivers which side of the road to drive on
Our roads are being engineered like a listed building, they conform to the regulations but they are not safe!
Derek Cozens, Hertfordshire
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How very interesting that these fundamental points which would reduce crashes gets +4 and -6.
Nigel ALBRIGHT
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So, inspite of all the arm-waving and shouting and all sorts of wonderful ideas on road safety, nothing really changes. One question is how much public money has been spent in the last few years getting nowhere? So, when will those in the RS industry and policy makers start to understand that there are really two key aspects here? One is getting drivers and other road users, to understand when and how they are vulnerable to crashes and, two, the related issue/s of understanding the value space and time or, that the lack of it actually creates vulnerabilities to crashes. Within all of this it is necessary (in spite of all the so-called safety gizmos now fitted to vehicles) to have drivers feel accountable for their behaviour. Only then are things really going to change, in my humble view.
Nigel ALBRIGHT
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