DEPARTMENT FOR TRANSPORT SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY FOR WALES ROAD CASUALTIES GREAT BRITAIN 2005 Published September 2006 London: The Stationery Office Department for Transport Great Minster House, 76 Marsham Street London SW1P 4DR Telephone 020 7944 8300 Internet service http://www.dft.gov.uk/ © Crown copyright 2006 Copyright in the typographical arrangement rests with the Crown. This publication may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium for non-commercial research, private study or internal circulation within an organisation. This is subject to it being reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the document/publication specified. This publication can also be accessed at the Department's web site. For any other use of this material please apply for a Click-Use Licence at www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/index.htm, or by writing to OPSI at The Licensing Division, Office of Public Sector Information, St Clements House, 2-16 Colegate, Norwich NR3 1BQ, Fax: 01603 723000 or e-mail to licensing@cabinet- office.x.gsi.gov.uk.. ISBN-13: 978-0-11-552773-9 ISBN-10: 0-11-552773-7 Printed in Great Britain on material containing 100% post-consumer waste. A National Statistics publication produced by Transport Statistics: DfT National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs. Contact Points: For general enquiries call the National Statistics Customer Enquiry Centre at: Room DG/18, 1 Drummond Gate,London SW1V 2QQ. Ҟ 020-7533 5888, fax 020-7533 6261 or e-mail: [email protected] You can also obtain National Statistics through the internet – go to www.statistics.gov.uk. For information relating to Transport Statistics go to www.dft.gov.uk/transtat Prepared for publication by; Anil Bhagat Richard Campbell Fazilat Dar Valerie Davies Linden Francis Dawn Frost Pat Kilbey David Marrott David Robinson Rashmeeta Singh David Wilson DfT is often prepared to sell unpublished data. Further information and queries concerning this publication should be directed to: SR5, 2/18, Great Minster House, 76 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DR. +44 (0) 20-7944 3078, Fax +44 (0)20-7944 2165, E-mail: [email protected] Preface This is the 2005 edition of “Road Casualties Great Britain:2005: Annual Report, renamed from Road Accidents Great Britain - The Casualty Report”. It presents statistics, collected to an agreed national standard, about personal injury road accidents and their consequent casualties. These statistics are used to inform public debate on matters of road safety and to provide both a local and national perspective for road safety problems and their remedies. The first edition of this report covered road casualty numbers in 1951. At that time, there were 4.7 million vehicles in use and the police recorded 178,000 personal injury road accidents. In 2005, the vehicle population stood at 33 million and there were 199, 000 injury accidents. Thus whilst the vehicle stock has increased seven fold the number of injury accidents has increased by about a fifth. Between 1951 and 2005, 305,972 people were killed and 17 million persons were injured in accidents on British roads. Most of the casualties were slightly injured and the numbers of people killed and seriously injured each year have been reducing; however this is still a serious problem. Against this background, in 2000 the government announced a new road safety strategy and casualty reduction targets for 2010 with particular emphasis on child casualties. This volume gives the baseline averages to be used in monitoring these new targets and the first article in this edition reports progress to date. The national road accident statistics are collected and published partly to inform public debate and partly to provide the basis for determining and monitoring effective road safety policies. The credible monitoring of targeted reductions requires that data be reported consistently and accurately. Local and national government, and local police forces, work closely to achieve a common reporting standard. A complex devolved reporting system such as that operated in Great Britain will never produce perfect results, but the high standards that are achieved reflect the efforts of local authorities and police forces to report to the standard national requirement. However readers should note that while very few, if any, fatal accidents do not become known to the police, an appreciable proportion of non-fatal injury accidents are not reported to the police. In addition some casualties reported to the police are not recorded and the severity of injury tends to be underestimated. The Department have recently published two further reports on the website; Under-reporting of road accidents: Phase 1 (Road Safety Research Report 69) by Heather Ward, Ronan Lyons and Roselle Thoreau and the related document Road accident casualties: a comparison of STATS19 data with Hospital Episodes Statistics. The Department is undertaking further research to investigate whether the level of under- reporting has changed. In addition to the STATS19 data, other data sources directly related to road safety have been used to compile this book. These include death registrations and coroners' reports as well as traffic and vehicle registration data. More detail on traffic and vehicles can be obtained from the Department's publication “Transport Statistics Great Britain”. The Department for Transport is often prepared to sell unpublished data. In addition copies of the main tables in this report can be supplied by the Department on a computer diskette, at a cost of £60.00 + VAT. [The tables are also available from the Department’s website following publication.] Further information can be obtained from: Mr Anil Bhagat, Department for Transport Zone 2/18, Great Minster House 76 Marsham Street London SW1P 4DR Telephone: 020 7944 6595 E-mail: [email protected] 1 Contents Page Table Number Conversion - RCGB 2004 to RCGB 2005 6 Articles : 1. Review of progress towards the 2010 casualty reduction targets 8 2. Drinking and Driving 25 3. Changes to Definitions and Tables for 2005 as a result of the 2002/03 34 Review of Road Accident Statistics Notes 41 Notes to individual main tables 43 Definitions 47 List of charts and tables Charts 1a Indices of population, vehicle stock, motor traffic and casualties: 1949-2005 52 1b Indices of population, vehicle stock, motor traffic and casualties: 1995-2005 52 2a Indices of casualties by road user type: killed or seriously injured: 1995-2005 53 2b Indices of casualties by road user type: all severities: 1995-2005 53 3a Indices of casualties by age band: killed or seriously injured: 1995-2005 54 3b Indices of casualties by age band: all severities: 1995-2005 54 4a Indices of casualties by road user type: built-up roads: killed or seriously injured: 1995-2005 55 4b Indices of casualties by road user type: non built-up roads: killed or seriously injured: 1995-2005 55 5a Casualty Rates by hour of day and day of week: All severities: Children : 2005 56 5b Casualty Rates by hour of day and day of week: All severities: Adults : 2005 56 Tables Part I Trends: 1995-1998 average and 1998 to 2005 (unless stated otherwise) General 1a Vehicle population, traffic and road length: 1995 to 2005 58 1b Road traffic by vehicle type and road class: 2004 - 2005 and 1994-98 average 59 2 Population, vehicle population, index of vehicle mileage, accidents and casualties: by road user type and severity: 1930 to 2005 60 Accidents 3 Accidents and accident rates: by road class and severity 61 4 Accidents: by road class, speed limit and severity 62 2 Casualties Page 5a Male casualties: by built-up and non built-up roads, road class and severity 63 5b Female casualties: by built-up and non built-up roads, road class and severity 64 5c All casualties: by built-up and non built-up roads, road class and severity 65 6a Male casualties: by road user type and severity 66 6b Female casualties: by road user type and severity 67 6c All casualties: by road user type and severity 68 7a Male casualties: killed or seriously injured: by road user type and age 69 7b Female casualties: killed or seriously injured: by road user type and age 70 7c All casualties: killed or seriously injured: by road user type and age 71 8 Casualties: by time of accident and severity: 1995 to 2005 72 9 Casualty rates: by road user type and severity: 1995 to 2005 72 Vehicles and drivers involved 10 Vehicles involved and involvement rates: by vehicle type and severity of accident: 1995 to 2005 73 11 Breath tests and breath test failures: by drivers and riders involved in accidents: 1995 to 2005 74 Part II Detailed tables 2005 (unless stated otherwise) General 12 Accidents, vehicles and casualties: casualties by severity: by road class, built-up and non built-up roads 75 13 Accidents and casualties: by severity, road type and speed limit 76 Accidents 14 Accidents: by severity, number of casualties involved, built-up and non built-up roads and road class 77 15a Accidents: by daylight and darkness, road surface condition, built-up and non built-up roads and severity 78 15b Casualties: by daylight and darkness, road surface condition, built-up and non built-up roads and severity 78 16a Accidents: by daylight and darkness, weather condition, built-up and non built-up roads and severity 79 16b Casualties: by daylight