Reported road casualties in Great Britain: 2017 annual report

A total of 1,793 people were killed on roads in Great Britain during 2017 – meaning the number of road deaths has remained largely unchanged since 2010.

The 2017 figure, published on 27 September by the DfT, is one death more than in 2016 (1,792) – making it the highest annual figure since 2011.

The DfT figures also show that at 24,831 people were seriously injured in 2017; however, the DfT points out that this figure is not comparable to earlier years due to changes in casualty reporting methods, introduced in 2016.

The DfT acknowledges that the new system is more accurate, and has resulted in a significant increase in the number of serious injuries recorded in both 2017 and 2016 (24,101) – compared with 2015 (22,144).

In contrast, the total number of road casualties fell in 2017 – down 6% to 170,993.

In terms of road user type, pedestrian deaths rose by 5% to 470 in 2017. The 2017 figure is also 11% above the 2010-14 average of 424.

Motorcycle deaths also increased – up 9% to 349.

However, there were falls in the number of cyclists killed – down 1% to 101 – and the number of car occupants killed – down 4% to 787.

Looking at age, the number of fatalities aged between 17-24 years decreased by 7% in 2017 – down from 299 in 2016 to 279. The DfT says this ‘follows a general year-on-year downward trend’ for this age group.

However, the number of fatalities aged 60 years and over increased by 5% to 559 (from 533 in 2016). The DfT says this was driven by the number of pedestrian casualties in 2017 (216 compared to 186 in 2016).