3. Reported numbers of Accidents (Tables 1a and 1b)
3. Reported numbers of Accidents (Tables 1a and 1b)
3.1 Table 1a shows the downward trend of injury road accidents recorded by the police. In 2019, there were 5,686 accidents in which someone was killed or injured, 12 per cent fewer than in 2018 and the lowest number since records began. There were 161 fatal accidents in 2019, 11 (7%) more than in 2018. In 2019, there were 1,715 serious injury accidents; and 3,810 slight injury accidents. Due to changes in severity reporting the number of reported serious and slight accidents are not comparable to previous years.
3.2 As outlined in section 2.4, Police Scotland’s move to CRaSH, an injury-based reporting system, has resulted in changes in severity reporting. Table 1b provides adjusted figures to show how many slight and serious accidents there would have been in previous years if they had been recorded using an injury-based reporting system. These experimental statistics, produced by the Department for Transport, make it possible to compare the most recent statistics to previous years. On the basis of the adjusted figures, the number of serious accidents in 2019 increased by 9% on 2018, and the number of slight accidents decreased by 19%.
| Fatal | Serious | Fatal and Serious | Slight | All Severities | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 758 | 7,860 | 8,618 | 13,515 | 22,133 | |
| 1975 | 699 | 6,912 | 7,611 | 13,041 | 20,652 | |
| 1980 | 644 | 7,218 | 7,862 | 13,926 | 21,788 | |
| 1985 | 550 | 6,507 | 7,057 | 13,587 | 20,644 | |
| 1990 | 491 | 5,237 | 5,728 | 14,443 | 20,171 | |
| 1995 | 361 | 4,071 | 4,432 | 12,102 | 16,534 | |
| 1996 | 316 | 3,315 | 3,631 | 12,442 | 16,073 | |
| 1997 | 340 | 3,312 | 3,652 | 12,994 | 16,646 | |
| 1998 | 339 | 3,318 | 3,657 | 12,862 | 16,519 | |
| 1999 | 285 | 3,209 | 3,494 | 11,921 | 15,415 | |
| 2000 | 297 | 3,007 | 3,304 | 11,828 | 15,132 | |
| 2001 | 309 | 2,840 | 3,149 | 11,575 | 14,724 | |
| 2002 | 274 | 2,684 | 2,958 | 11,385 | 14,343 | |
| 2003 | 301 | 2,495 | 2,796 | 11,121 | 13,917 | |
| 2004 | 283 | 2,331 | 2,614 | 11,305 | 13,919 | |
| 2005 | 264 | 2,252 | 2,516 | 10,922 | 13,438 | |
| 2006 | 293 | 2,257 | 2,550 | 10,560 | 13,110 | |
| 2007 | 255 | 2,049 | 2,304 | 10,203 | 12,507 | |
| 2008 | 245 | 2,242 | 2,487 | 9,672 | 12,159 | |
| 2009 | 196 | 1,998 | 2,194 | 9,362 | 11,556 | |
| 2010 | 189 | 1,713 | 1,902 | 8,393 | 10,295 | |
| 2011 | 175 | 1,675 | 1,850 | 8,135 | 9,985 | |
| 2012 | 162 | 1,736 | 1,898 | 7,879 | 9,777 | |
| 2013 | 159 | 1,425 | 1,584 | 7,390 | 8,974 | |
| 2014 | 181 | 1,488 | 1,669 | 7,164 | 8,833 | |
| 2015 | 157 | 1,421 | 1,578 | 6,899 | 8,477 | |
| 2016 | 175 | 1,433 | 1,608 | 6,747 | 8,355 | |
| 2017 | 140 | 1,378 | 1,518 | 5,600 | 7,118 | |
| 2018 | 150 | 1,371 | 1,521 | 4,911 | 6,432 | |
| 2019 2 | prov. | 161 | 1,715 | 1,876 | 3,810 | 5,686 |
1. An accident can involve more than one casualty; casualty numbers are presented in table 2.
2. Due to changes in the way casualty severities are recorded, serious and slight figures in 2019 are not comparable with previous years.
| DfT adjusted Serious | DfT adjusted Slight | Dft unadjusted Serious | Dft unadjusted Slight | DfT Serious/Slight total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004-08 average | 2,518 | 10,159 | 2,185 | 10,492 | 12,678 |
| 2004 | 2,663 | 10,902 | 2,308 | 11,257 | 13,565 |
| 2005 | 2,562 | 10,556 | 2,193 | 10,925 | 13,118 |
| 2006 | 2,590 | 10,125 | 2,232 | 10,483 | 12,715 |
| 2007 | 2,319 | 9,770 | 1,980 | 10,109 | 12,089 |
| 2008 | 2,458 | 9,444 | 2,214 | 9,688 | 11,902 |
| 2009 | 2,251 | 9,090 | 1,980 | 9,361 | 11,341 |
| 2010 | 1,918 | 8,180 | 1,705 | 8,393 | 10,098 |
| 2011 | 1,875 | 7,918 | 1,669 | 8,124 | 9,793 |
| 2012 | 1,916 | 7,601 | 1,717 | 7,800 | 9,517 |
| 2013 | 1,624 | 7,196 | 1,425 | 7,395 | 8,820 |
| 2014 | 1,670 | 6,941 | 1,482 | 7,129 | 8,611 |
| 2015 | 1,623 | 6,689 | 1,416 | 6,896 | 8,312 |
| 2016 | 1,637 | 6,534 | 1,429 | 6,742 | 8,171 |
| 2017 | 1,558 | 5,414 | 1,373 | 5,599 | 6,972 |
| 2018 | 1,544 | 4,712 | 1,367 | 4,889 | 6,256 |
| 2019 | 1,685 | 3,837 | 1,713 | 3,809 | 5,522 |
| 2019 change on 2018 | 9.1 | -18.6 | -11.7 | ||
| 2019 change on 04-08 average | -33.1 | -62.2 | -56.4 |
Source: Department for Transport.
The unadjusted figures in this table are National Statistics
The adjusted figures in this table are Experimental Statistics
Unadjusted figures in this table may not match those in other tables in this publication as DfT closes its database each year but Transport Scotland keep its database open.
Figures for serious and slight injuries are as reported by police. Since 2019, Police Scotland has adopted a new severity reporting system which means that serious injury figures, and to a lesser extent slight injuries, are not comparable with earlier years. Adjustments to account for the change have been produced.
More information on the change and the adjustment process is available at the following address.