Provisional road casualty figures for the year ending June 2020, which included three months of the first national lockdown, show that road deaths were 14% lower compared with the previous year, according to the Department of Tramsport’s: Reported road casualties in Great
Britain: provisional estimates year ending June 2020 document.
There were an estimated 1,580 road deaths in the year ending June 2020 which includes three months of the national lockdown. This is a decrease of 14% compared to the previous year. This change is statistically signifcant
at the 95% confdence level.
The report shows there were 131,220 casualties of all severities in the year
ending June 2020, down by 16% from the previous year. This change is statistically signifcant, said the DfT.
It said the overall casualty rate per vehicle mile decreased by 2% over the same period. The reduction in casualties is broadly in line with the reduction in trafc which decreased by 14% over this period.
There were 24,470 killed or seriously injured casualties (KSIs) in reported road trafc accidents reported to the police, for the year ending June 2020.
This is a statistically signifcant decrease of 11% compared to the year ending June 2019 (27,471).
In January and February of 2020, the number of casualties remained broadly consistent with 2019. Considerable reductions were observed for the months March to June following the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, with lockdown beginning during March
2020 (see table). The number of casualties decreased most in April, with a fall of 67% compared to 2019.
Although the number of casualties then increased for May and June, fgures were considerably lower than the equivalent months of the previous year (45% and 33% lower, respectively). This trend coincides with changes in trafc volumes. Road trafc decreased by 8% for January
to March and 49% for April to June (TRA25) compared to 2019.
In general, for casualties of all severities, there was a larger percentage reduction for pedestrians and a smaller reduction for pedal cyclists, compared to other road user types over this period.
