Thursday 29th September 2005

New Casualty Stats Published

2004 Deaths down by 8 per cent

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The Office for National Statistics has released figures for 2004 detailing the number of people killed and injured on the UK's roads.

• 3,221 people were killed on Britain's roads in 2004, 8 percent less than in 2003.
• The number of people seriously injured fell to 31,130, also 8 percent lower than in 2003.
• Total casualties in 2004 were 280,840, 3 percent fewer than in 2003;
• 5 fewer children were killed on the roads in 2004 than in 2003, a fall of 3 percent. The total number of children killed or seriously injured fell by 5 percent;
• Provisional estimates indicate that the number of deaths in accidents involving drink driving was 2 percent higher than in 2003.
• Pedestrian casualties fell by 4 percent between 2003 and 2004 and the number of killed or seriously injured pedestrians was down 6 percent.
• 12 percent of all road accident casualties and 21 percent of those who died in road accidents were pedestrians;
• In 2004, the number of casualties among users of two wheeled motor vehicles fell by 10 percent compared with 2003 and the number of deaths fell by 16 percent to 585. Serious injuries fell by 13 percent.
• Pedal cyclist casualties fell 2 percent. The number of cyclists killed or seriously injured fell by 4 percent overall, but the number of fatalities increased by 18 percent. Pedal cyclist casualty rates per hundred million vehicle kilometres increased by 14 percent.

The statistics deal mainly with personal road injury accidents on public roads attended by the police or reported to the police within 30 days of the accident occurring. Fatalities refer to casualties who died within 30 days of the accident.

[Gruffy]

[quote=The report]Pedal cyclist casualties fell 2 percent. The number of cyclists [b]killed or seriously injured fell by 4 percent overall[/b], but the number of [b]fatalities increased by 18 percent[/b].[/quote]
Overall it's promising stuff, but then little gems like this slip in. What is the point of including fatalities in KSI statistics if it makes the report so misleading? If the statistics show good results why dress them up?

Gruffy

[wab172uk]

The Government will use these stat's to tell us that Speed Camera's (sorry Safety camera's) work. Therefore we will see even more of them springing up all over the place.

Remember, the british public WANT MORE speed camera's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mr Whippy]

Gruffy said:

The report said: Pedal cyclist casualties fell 2 percent. The number of cyclists killed or seriously injured fell by 4 percent overall, but the number of fatalities increased by 18 percent. Overall it's promising stuff, but then little gems like this slip in. What is the point of including fatalities in KSI statistics if it makes the report so misleading? If the statistics show good results why dress them up? Gruffy

Surely if KSI are down, but fatalities are HUGELY up, then more people are actually dying on push bikes, just alot less are "seriously injured".

Howe we define "seriously injurd" is the key factor here. How can cyclist accidents be so black and white, either you die, or you get away with no serious injury, with what would appear to be a closing gap of anything inbetween?

Methinks how we define seriously injured changes, so the goalposts are moving to "massage" the figures into a nice fluffy looking piece of information!

Dave

[Gruffy]

Maybe all cyclists should wear reflective yellow square helmets? That way motorists would know to concentrate on them.

Gruffy

[MGV8]

As new cars are better at stopping can over all much safer I think the numbers should be going down.

[jazzyjeff]

Exactly - I reckon the fall overall is more due to increased vehicle safety (i.e. more injured than dead, same number of accidents!!) rather than people driving any better - and certainly not from an increase in speed camera numbers!!!

The stats for cyclists bear this out - as many as ever before are cycling like numpty's and getting mashed as a result (this certainly reflects my experience of them around Reading, they're either all running red lights or hacking down pavements playing chicken with pedestrians)...

Surely figures for number of ACCIDENTS would be more useful than number of injuries/fatalities? That way we can judge whether as a society we are being more careful and considerate or not (i.e - not! ;-) ).

[chris_crossley]

Maybe that now people know where the accident black spots are they can spend more time looking where there driving. Rather than looking at the speedo.

[MarkoTVR]

chris_crossley said:

Maybe that now people know where the accident black spots are they can spend more time looking where there driving. Rather than looking at the speedo.

Just how it always should have been.

[aeroresh]

1 year does not constitute a trend. Could be a blip or anything. Only time will tell I guess....

[Merefield]

Ah, its sooooo obviously the result of all these excellent speed cameras everywhere


/runs!

[justinp1]

Its worth noting the 8% fall is only the deaths and serious injuries.

The total casualties only fell by 3%.

Thus, when accidents happen, less people are dying or are seiously injured. I would put this down to the progression of newer cars gradually replacing older cars. Newer cars now have airbags, and to protect pedestrians there are now crumple zones on the bonnet etc.

To account for the further three percent, I would advocate that the amount of newer cars with higher spec such as ABS is now as standard in most cars. Traction control and other dynamic aids are now on higher spec cars and sports cars. This, from what I have seen has quite an effect on the crash rate.

Thus, I would advocate that the speed kills theory, has a net effect of pretty much zero... especially since we hear that the cameras are working!

[black s2k]

Better stopping, yes.

Remember also that as the vehicle fleet gets replaced, many newer cars have 'idiot friendly' bonnet hinges and wiper arms, so that pedestrian casualties ought to fall.

Perhaps it doesn't help people that get squashed between a 'pedestrian friendly' Honda Civic and an alloy-framed cycle!

Just a hypotheses..........

[stowc]

jazzyjeff said:

The stats for cyclists bear this out - as many as ever before are cycling like numpty's and getting mashed as a result (this certainly reflects my experience of them around Reading, they're either all running red lights or hacking down pavements playing chicken with pedestrians)... .

I'm glad you qualified this. Not all cyclists are numpties. I lost two friends in my racing days, mowed down from behind on straight roads in separate incidents while out training. We're as bad as each other.

[stenniso]

I see drink driving is up again. Perhaps a Safety camera that fires a radio equipped dart into the arm of each passing driver could analyse a blood sample and report it to the next Safety camera armed with a stinger.......

On the subject of cyclists, I note that the nights are drawing in, and kids and adults are still riding with no lights. Isn't it time to make then mandatory at the bike manufacturers. Then all we need is a Safety camera to check for worn batteries, which communicates with another safety camera armed with a stinger......

Or here's a thought, what about a policeman, preferrably not armed, in a car/on bike/on foot, patrolling roads and towns. It might just work....