There were 1,748 reported road deaths in 2019, a 2% fall on 2018 figures, according to the Department of Transport’s (DfT) provisional road casualty statistics report.
The report says that overall in 2019, there was 153,213 casualties of all severities in reported incidents which was 5% lower than the previous year and the lowest recorded level since 1979. Provisional road traffic statistics for 2019 show that there was a 0.5% increase in miles travelled on Britain’s roads, after remaining similar between 2017 and 2018 with a small increase of 0.3%.
It goes on to say that there were 25,975 serious injuries in road traffic incidents reported to the police in 2019. However, from 2016 large numbers of police forces have adopted a new reporting system, comparing figures with earlier years should be made with caution.
Assuming that all police forces were using injury-based severity reporting systems, the analysis estimates that there were 27,840 serious injuries and 29,588 people killed or seriously injured in 2019.
In 2019, there were 125,592 slightly injured casualties in reported road traffic incidents reported to the police. In 2019, car occupants accounted for 43% of road deaths, pedestrians 26%, motorcyclists 19% and pedal cyclists 6%.
The number of pedal cyclists killed or seriously injured in Great Britain has increased by 11% between 2009- 3,689 to 2019-4,092. This is explained by an increase in pedal cyclist traffic in Great Britain of 17% from 2008 to 2018 (2.8 to 3.3 billion vehicle miles). Overall pedal cyclist casualties decreased by 4% between 2018 and 2019.
Also, the report found in 2019 there were 67 goods vehicle occupant (including heavy and light goods vehicle) fatalities an increase of 22%. Goods vehicle fatalities have fluctuated between 47 and 67 in the last 10 years.
The full report can be read here:
