Quarter three provisional road casualty statistics

The latest Department for Transport road casualty statistics have shown a welcome decrease in the overall number of deaths and serious injuries in the year ending September 2013.

However, despite the decrease, the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) is concerned that two-wheeled road users are still a growing risk and must be given even greater priority for investment and education.

The figures show that:

• For the year ending September 2013, there were 184,010 reported road casualties of all severities, 7% fewer than the 197,700 for the year ending September 2012.
• In the year ending September 2013 there were 1,730 reported road fatalities, a 2% drop from 1,761 in the year ending September 2012. The number of killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties fell by 6%, to 23,380, and the total number of casualties fell by 7% to 184,010. In comparison, motor vehicle traffic rose by 1.1% over the same period.
• A total of 8,490 car user KSI casualties occurred in the year ending September 2013, a fall of 6% from the previous 12-month period.
• KSI casualties for the vulnerable road user groups – pedestrians, pedal cyclists and motorcyclists – showed overall decreases of 10%, 2% and 6% respectively.

IAM director of policy and research Neil Greig said:

"It is reassuring to see an overall drop in the number of road casualties. But the fact remains that nearly a quarter of road deaths are a result for criminal driving acts such as dangerous driving, drink driving, careless driving and aggravated theft. Targeted action by the police to drive down the numbers of these criminal driving acts could potentially have huge societal benefits."

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