2. Background

2.1 This bulletin presents provisional statistics of reported injury road accidents (i.e. road accidents in which one or more people were killed or injured) in Scotland in 2013. These figures were extracted from Transport Scotland's reported road accident statistical database (based on 'Stats19' statistical returns made by police forces) on 5 May 2013. Final 2013 figures will appear in Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2013 , which will be published in October 2014 and may differ slightly due to late returns and amendments. For similar reasons, the figures given here for 2012 and earlier years may differ slightly from those published previously. Further information about the differences between the main figures in the publications can be found in section 10.2.

2.2 The statistics are the numbers of injury road accidents which were reported by the police. Each accident is classified according to the severity of its most seriously injured casualty. Very few, if any, fatal accidents do not become known to the police. However, there could be many non-fatal injury accidents which are not reported by the public to the police, and are therefore not counted in these statistics because the police can only report accidents of which they are aware. An article on under counting in the statistics is included in Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2010 http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/strategy-and-research/publications-and-consultations/j199237-08

2.3 The Scottish Road Safety Framework published on 15 June 2009, outlined Scotland specific road safety targets. The casualty reduction targets for 2020 are described in section 10.5. Progress towards them is covered in section 8, tables 5 to 9 and the charts here.

2.4 Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2013 is one of a series of Transport Statistics publications. A comprehensive statistical picture of transport activity is given in the compendium Scottish Transport Statistics volume and the Key Transport Statistics card with Scottish Household Survey transport data being released in late summer. Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2013 is followed in October by Reported Road Casualties Scotland, a volume which includes extensive analyses of the numbers of accidents, vehicles and casualties. See the link below for more details: http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/analysis/statistics/publications

2.5 We welcome comments and feedback on these statistics.

Prepared for publication by:

Matt Perkins
Andrew Knight
Charlie Lewis
Transport Statistics
Transport Scotland
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh EH6 6QQ

Telephone 0131 244 7256
transtat@transportscotland.gsi.gov.uk