Organisation: Department for Transport
Date uploaded: 13th July 2016
Date published/launched: June 2016
The report shows that 1,732 people were killed in reported road traffic accidents in Great Britain in 2015 – the second lowest on record after 2013.
Although this represents a decrease of 43 fatalities (2.4%) from 2014, the report says that ‘natural variation’ explains the reduction. The DfT says in statistical terms the number of fatalities has remained unchanged since 2011, but there were 45% fewer fatalities in 2015 than a decade earlier in 2006 and 4% fewer than the 2010-14 average.
The report says there has been no clear trend in the number of fatalities since around 2011 but, prior to that, and particularly during 2006-2010, the general trend was for fatalities to fall.
Since 2010, most of the year-on-year changes are either explained by one-off effects such as extreme weather conditions, or natural variation.
With regard to seriously injured casualties, in 2015 there were 22,137 – again the second lowest annual figure behind 2013 and 2.9% lower than in 2014. The DfT says this decrease is statistically significant and more likely than not reflects genuine changes on British roads.
The number of casualties of all severities (186,209) is around 4% lower year-on-year, and also the second lowest level on record.
A total of 140,086 personal-injury road traffic collisions were reported to the police in 2015. Of these, 1,618 resulted in at least one fatality.
The figures lead the DfT to conclude there have been statistically significant decreases in the number of people seriously and slightly injured (but not killed) in road traffic accidents between 2014 and 2015.
The report goes on to say: ”This indicates that there are a number of factors that have combined together to improve some aspects of safety on Britain’s roads. However, it is not definitive evidence of a continued improvement in road deaths.”
Footnote:
The report also contains an informative section which explains the factors that affect road casualty numbers emphasising the complexity of these. This section refers to a valuable report from OECD written by renowned experts which explains the mechanisms by which indicators of economic development influence road safety and quantifies their impact. The OECD report can also be downloaded below.
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