Ten per cent fall in casualties on Scotland’s roads
Transport Scotland Statisticians today released the final 2013 figures for road casualties reported to the police. As well as the 10 per cent fall in overall casualties, to 11,498 in 2013, the figures also show that the number of fatalities fell by three per cent to 172 and the number of serious injuries decreased by 16 per cent to 1,672. The number of people slightly injured decreased by 9 per cent over the year, to 9,654 in 2013.
Casualty numbers for all modes of transport fell, including a 12 per cent fall in pedestrian casualties, an 11 per cent fall for motorcycle casualties and a 3 per cent fall in pedal cycle casualties. There were increases in fatalities amongst car users, motorcyclists and cyclists but fatalities for all other modes of transport fell between 2012 and 2013.
These statistics provide updates on progress against Scotland’s road safety targets as set out in the Scottish Road Safety Framework. Compared to the 2004-2008 baseline, in 2013 there were:
- 172 fatalities, a reduction of 41 per cent (2020 target: 40% reduction)
- 1,672 serious injuries, a reduction of 36 per cent (2020 target: 55% reduction)
- an average of 6 children killed over the last three years, a reduction of 60 per cent (2020 target: 50% reduction)
- 143 children seriously injured, a reduction of 56% (2020 target: 65% reduction)
The figures released today were produced by independent statistical staff free from any political interference, in accordance with professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
The full statistical publication is available on the Transport Scotland website
http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/statistics/reported-road-casualties-scotland-all-editions
The publication presents finalised statistics of injury road accidents (i.e. road accidents in which one or more people were killed or injured) in Scotland in 2013. These figures update the provisional figures published in Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2013 in June 2014.
The statistics in the publication are used by Transport Scotland, Police Scotland, Local Authorities and road safety professionals across Scotland to target interventions to make Scotland’s roads safer.
The Scottish Road Safety Framework was launched in June 2009, outlining Scotland specific targets. This can be accessed at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/10/01090036/0. Progress towards the 2020 casualty reduction targets is shown in section 8 of the publication. Each reduction target is assessed against the 2004/08 average. These targets are:
• a 40 per cent reduction in the number of people killed in road traffic accidents;
• a 55 per cent reduction in the number of people seriously injured;
• a 50 per cent reduction in the number of children killed; Measured using an average of three years of data due to the small numbers and year on year fluctuations.
• a 65 per cent reduction in the number of children seriously injured; and
• a 10 per cent reduction in the slight casualty rate, expressed as the number of people slightly injured per 100 million vehicle kilometres
The first target is also part of the Scottish Government National Performance Framework, National Indicator 32 to reduce deaths on Scotland’s roads. This publication sees no change to the performance improving position for this indicator, based on the provisional data for 2013 published in June, details available at
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Performance/scotPerforms/indicator/roaddeaths.
Further information on Transport and Travel statistics within Scotland can be accessed at http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/analysis/statistics
Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff – more information on the standards of official statistics in Scotland can be accessed at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/About
Contact Transport Scotland Press Office: 0141 272 7195