Thursday 2nd October 2003

Road Death Stats Published

Govt still a long way short of its targets

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The Office for National Statistics publishes its annual analysis into road casualties today.

“Road Casualties Great Britain 2002 Annual Report” gives detailed information about the number of people killed or injured on the UK's roads.

Key points include:

• Road deaths in 2002 were down just 1% on 2001
• Serious injuries fell to 35,976 in 2002, down 3% on 2001
• The number of children killed fell by 18% in 2002
• Estimates for drink driving related deaths suggest a 6% increase
• Motorbike deaths were up 4%
• Pedal cycling is safer than ever before - and casualty figures were down by 11%

The Government was aiming for a 40% reduction in casualties for 2010 compared with the average of 1994-1998. Seems some radical new thinking may be required...

The report is available online at the Department for Transport  (although it seems to be empty )

[deltaf]

The obvious one is the current "cameras cure all" strategy.
Its failed bigtime yet again, but ill bet they twist the figures to claim a success.
So, all we need now, is about 20,000 more scameras, and road deaths will be at zero......not.

[206xsi]

A Gatso every 100m on every road - gotta work

[206xsi]

At the very least it would be a "target rich environment"

[v8thunder]

Oh, so cycling is the safest thing you can do now is it? You wouldn't have thought so, given the way the ones ride in my area. Surely the government will use this to turn all the roads into cycle lanes and ban all cars.

[dick dastardly]

"Motorbike deaths were up 4%"

I hold the government responsible for this.

Forcing more people onto bikes (through congestion charging, petrol price hikes, tolls, etc.) will obviously lead to higher fatalities

[Wasted Bullet]

You have to feel sorry for the statesticians... On one hand they are trying to say "Look how dangerous the roads are... We neen more camera's"... and on the other "Camera's are really effective... look at the improvment..."

[rutthenut]

Going by the usual plan of action taken by this government, there will indeed be some radical new thinking - it will be about how they count road casualties.

Sames as all the other 'targets' they set, change the way you measure things to get the results that you want to spread to your adoring (!) public...

[te51cle]

A 40% reduction in casualties is a completely unrealistic target.

P.S. It took me just 30 seconds to find the first numerical typo !

[bogush]

> "Road deaths in 2002 were down just 1% on 2001"

If I recall correctly they slipped out a "press release" a couple of months ago that looked just like all the earlier ones which went on about how killed and seriously injured, etc, had falled.

But they had slipped in the above.

Except that it said *less* than one per cent.

And when you dug out the figures it was about a third of a percent!

Not too impressive considering the annual fall used to be at least ten times that before the spread of speed cameras.

[Nightmare]

yse - they rounded up 0.55% to 1% - how can you possibly justify rounding up when the variance is only a single percent in the first place?!!

[DennisTheMenace]

dick dastardly said:

"Motorbike deaths were up 4%" I hold the government responsible for this. Forcing more people onto bikes (through congestion charging, petrol price hikes, tolls, etc.) will obviously lead to higher fatalities

Also hitting a pothole mid bend on a poorly underfunded road network dosent help either