Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2010
Article 2: Comparison of Police road casualty statistics with other sources
Summary
- Stats 19 figures are a reliable measure of the level of, and trends in, the number of road deaths - they are very similar to GROS figures, but not the same due to definitional differences;
- Stats 19 killed and seriously injured (KSI) figures have fallen by 36% between 1998 and 2008, compared with a fall of 31% in hospital admissions due to road traffic accidents;
- Stats 19 child KSI figures have fallen by 57% between 1998 and 2008, compared with a fall of 66% in child hospital admissions due to road traffic accidents;
- 37% of adults interviewed in the Scottish Household Survey who had been injured in a road accident in the past year said that it had not been reported to the police;
- The DfT have published a provisional estimate of total injury GB road accidents within their Road Casualties Great Britain 2009 publication - based on findings from the National Travel Survey.
- Article 3 details further analysis to estimate a figure for the number of road casualties not included in the STATS 19 data for Scotland.
1. Introduction
This publication presents statistics on reported injury road accidents (i.e. road accidents where one or more people are injured) produced from police forces' Stats 19 returns. The police can only report details of the accidents of which they are aware.
Very few, if any, fatal accidents do not become known to the police. However there may be many non-fatal injury accidents not reported by the public to the police, which will not feature in the Stats 19 returns.
This article compares the official road casualty statistics for Scotland, produced from Stats 19 returns, with figures from some other sources. It refers to:
- General Register Office for Scotland road death figures (Section 2)
- numbers of emergency admissions to hospital as the result of road traffic accidents (Section 3);
- findings from two studies of casualties at a few individual hospitals (Section 4);
- Scottish Household Survey data (Section 5);
- some other research and analysis (including DfT GB level analysis) (Section 6)
2. Road Fatalities
National Records of Scotland data (Previously General Register Office for Scotland)
The NRS record the numbers of deaths registered in Scotland each year due to injuries sustained in motor vehicle (and other road vehicle) accidents. The definition is not identical to those used by the police, in particular there is no 30 day cut off point for fatalities associated with the road accident.
Figure 9 shows that the Stats 19 and NRS numbers of road deaths are similar in every year, that they tend to rise and fall together, and that, in 2010, they were at the lowest level that has been recorded for many years.
Table J shows that both the Stats 19 and the NRS figures fell by 36% between 2000 and 2010. The table also shows that the difference has fluctuated year to year, but the Stats 19 figure has always been between 90% and 101% of NRS figures (with an average of 96%).
Due to definitional difference the two sets of numbers will not agree exactly (see Figure 9 notes). However, it is clear that the net effect of such differences is not great, and this comparison provides strong evidence that most, if not all road deaths become known to the police and confirms that trends in fatalities recorded by the police are reliable.
Figure 9: Comparison of Police Stats19 and NRS road deaths
NB: there are definitional changes between the data:
- NRS figures cover all deaths in accidents involving motor vehicles, wherever they occur, whereas Stats19 relate to those on public roads.
- The Stats19 do not include persons who die more than 30 days after the accidents whereas the NRS do.
- The Stats19 includes people who fatally injured in Scotland but who die in England less than 30 days later whereas the NRS would not.
3. Killed or seriously injured (KSI) road casualties
Hospital Admission Statistics
3.1 Introduction
On admission to hospital, patients who had been involved in road traffic accidents are recorded specifically as being injured in a road traffic accident, to differentiate them from those who were involved in accidents that occurred off-road (therefore numbers should be broadly comparable with the Stats 19 figures).
This section compares Stats 19 data with hospitals' numbers of emergency admissions as the result of road traffic accidents It looks at those classed as killed and seriously injured (KSIs) because, in the Stats 19 statistics:
- serious injuries include any for which a person is detained in hospital as an in-patient;
- a fatal injury results in death less than 30 days after the accident, so some hospital admissions will later be counted as road deaths (but other road deaths occur before reaching hospital).
However, some casualties recorded as slight at the scene of the accident may attend hospital and some may be admitted. Hospital admission figures are based on periods of care (episodes) under a particular consultant, so patients can be counted more than once (e.g. if they transfer to another consultant). However, this should not affect greatly the relationship between the trends which are shown by the two sets of figures unless there is a marked change in the proportion of casualties who transfer to other consultants.
3.2 Comparisons - overall trends
Figure 10 shows that both sets of figures have been falling over the past few decades, with the underlying numbers appearing in Table J. It is clear that:
- up to the mid-1990's the Stats 19 and hospital figures were broadly the same, and tended to fall at similar rates;
- since the mid-1990's the Stats 19 figures have been noticeably lower than the hospital figures, however reductions over the last 10 years are more similar. That is between 1998 and 2008:
- All ages:
- Stats 19 KSI - 36% fall
- Hospital admissions - 31% fall
- Children:
- Stats 19 KSI - 57% fall
- Hospital admissions - 66% fall
- All ages:
As a result, the Stats 19 figures represent a decreasing percentage of the hospital figures. Between 1980 and 1995, the overall average for Stats 19 KSI figures as a percentage of the hospital figures was 107%; between 1996 and 2008, it was only 76%. Possible reasons for this could be:
- reduced reporting of road accidents by the public to the police (and hence increased under-reporting in Stats 19);
- changes in the way in which Police Forces report accidents in their Stats 19 returns;
- an increase in the proportion of road casualties going to hospital;
- changes in hospitals' practices (which might result in an increased proportion of the casualties who go to A&E departments being admitted to hospital, or a larger proportion of admissions as a result of a road accident being identified as such in hospitals' data);
- road safety improvements which reduced the number of less serious injuries (those which are counted as serious in Stats 19 but which do not involve being admitted to hospital);
While some indications are beginning to emerge, it is not completely clear which (if any) of these reasons caused the different trends in the Stats 19 and hospitals figures. Further research may help.
Figure 10: Comparison of Police Stats 19 and hospital admissions as a result of a road traffic accident
The hospital admissions figures for 1980 to 1995 are Scottish Hospital In Patient System (SHIPS) figures for emergency hospital admissions as a result of a road traffic accident, as shown in a TRL research report (see Section 6); the figures for 1996 available from www.isdscotland.org/unintentional_injuries.
3.3 Comparisons - types of road user
Table K shows the Stats 19 KSI figures as percentages of the corresponding hospital admissions due to road traffic accidents figures. Because these comparisons are based on overall numbers they do not represent the full extent of the differences between the two sources of data (a casualty counted in Stats 19 but not in the hospital admissions figures will off-set one counted in the hospital figures but not in Stats 19).
Table K covers casualties of all ages. The smallest differences between the sets of figures exist for pedestrians, motorcyclists and car users (the most numerous types of casualty), but the gap is widening (e.g. the Stats 19 number of car user casualties represented 99% of the number of hospital admissions in 1998, but only 75% in 2005).
The greatest difference exists for pedal cyclists with Stats 19 figures representing only about 30% of the numbers of hospital admissions. While many pedal cyclist accidents occur off-road and are therefore not within the scope of Stats 19, only on-road casualties were included in these hospitals figures.
Recent work by the Department for Transport (using data for England) suggests that on- road pedal cyclist accidents which do not involve other vehicles are very unlikely to be reported to the police (see section 6.3). As it happens, such under-reporting of pedal cyclist casualties has not caused the difference in trends between the Stats 19 and hospitals figures: the Stats 19 figure for pedal cyclists has remained at roughly 30% of the hospitals figure since 1997, fluctuating only slightly (between 27% and 33%) from year to year. The main cause of the different trends is the fall from around 100% to about 75% in the corresponding percentage for car users, who account for about half of all Stats 19 KSI casualties.
4. Studies of casualties at a few individual hospitals
4.1 Extent and Severity of Cycle Accident Casualties (2005)
Cyclists who reported to one of five Accident and Emergency Departments in the Lothian and Borders areas were asked to complete a questionnaire relating to their accident. 806 forms were collected from those (aged 5+) who had been involved in a pedal cycle accident between September 2003 and August 2004. The research found that many of the casualties who reported to hospital with a cycling injury serious enough for medical attention did not appear in the official road accident statistics.
A large proportion of the accidents (41%) occurred off-road and therefore were not within the scope of the Stats 19 returns. However, even when comparing only those who reported their accident as being on the road (excluding pavements), the Stats 19 data appeared to under-report the extent of on-road cycling accidents. (Note that which occur on the footway or pavement should be included in the Stats 19 returns.)
The cyclists attending A&E gave a wide range of causes for the accidents, and no single cause stood out. By contrast, Stats 19 data described a smaller range of causes, with the involvement of a motor vehicle being the predominant factor. The research also found that the official statistics on road accidents were much less likely to record pedal cycle accidents involving children than those involving adults.
4.2 Alcohol and the Pedestrian Road Casualty (1998)
This research investigated the link between pedestrian accidents and the consumption of alcohol. Five hospitals were included in the study between October 1996 and April 1997. Casualties at Accident and Emergency who had been involved in a road traffic accident were asked to take part in the study. As part of the research, pedestrian casualties only were linked with the Stats 19 data, and additional analysis carried out where a match was found. Of 145 pedestrian casualties in the sample, 98 (68%) resulted in a match with Stats 19 records. Two possible reasons were given for this: (a) insufficient information available to make a match or (b) some accidents resulting in the presentation of a casualty were not reported to the police.
5. Scottish Household Survey (SHS) Results
The Scottish Household Survey collects data via an interview with one randomly selected adult (aged 16+) per household in a sample spread across Scotland. The results are weighted to take account of differences in selection probabilities and response rates.
Were you injured in a road accident?
Between February 1999 and March 2003, respondents were asked whether they had been injured in a road accident in the past twelve months, and if so, how they were involved (driver/passenger/pedestrian/cyclist/other). The questions were then dropped from the survey, and reinstated in 2005 with an addition: respondents were also asked whether the accident had been reported to the police.
Table L compares the percentages of adults who had been injured (any severity) in an accident, using the SHS and Stats 19 data:
- All users: Stats 19 data suggest around 0.3% of the adult population is injured in a road accident per year, whereas the SHS figure suggest 1.4%. Stats 19 data accounts for around 22% of the SHS figure, and doesn't vary greatly with age (although slightly higher for the 70+ category at 30%);
- Mode: This is lowest for pedal cyclists (14%) and highest (39%) for pedestrians. The table does not subdivide the others between different types of motor vehicle (e.g. car, motorcycle, etc) as the SHS does not distinguish between them
Although the SHS and Stats 19 figures are not on the same basis, this shouldn't affect the conclusion greatly given the extent of the difference between the figures: it is clear that the SHS percentages are several times those obtained from Stats 19.
Was it reported?
In 2009/10, 42% of SHS respondents who said they had been injured in a road accident in the past year said that the accident had not been reported to the police compared to 37% in 2007/08. As this figure is based on only 280 adults who said that they had been injured in a road accident in the past year, it may be subject to a large sampling error (it has 95% confidence limits of +/- about 6 percentage points. However, whatever the true value is (i.e. 36%, or 48%), it is clear that a large percentage of accidents involving personal injury are not reported to the Police.
Further analysis and an estimate of those injury road accidents not reported to the police and therefore an approximation of total injury road accidents in Scotland is included in Article 3
6. Other research and analysis
6.1 DfT's estimation of total injury road accidents in Great Britain
In response to the UK Statistics Authority assessment of GB Stats 19, the DfT has begun to publish discussion articles within their annual Road Casualties Great Britain Annual reports comparing GB (police stats19) data with other sources.
www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/accidents/casualtiesgbar/
The articles provide an overview of a number of sources, focusing on Government datasets with national coverage examining their strengths/weaknesses and drawing comparisons with the Stats 19 data. In a similar fashion to this article it looks at:
- Death registrations data;
- Hospital Episode data: inpatients and A & E attendances;
- DWP compensation Claims data;
- National Travel Survey data.
It concludes that although Stats 19 is the most detailed and useful source of information on road casualties at a national level, its isn't complete or perfect and complementary sources should be used to build a balanced picture.
It also attempts to quantify the total number of injury road accidents using the National Travel Survey which asks respondents (similar to the Scottish Household Survey) whether they were injured in a road accident in the last year. Although the NTS is a sample survey and is therefore subject to sampling variability, it is used as it is the only source providing complete coverage of casualties (particularly those who do not report to the police or hospital).
Grossing up the NTS survey estimate to the population suggests the total number of road injury accidents is between 610,000 and 780,000 per year, with a best estimate of around 700,000. This is over 3 times the 222,146 recorded casualties in Stats 19 in 2009.
It is clear that caution should be taken when looking at this provisional analysis, the DfT's article discusses the methodology in more detail and what the next steps will be. This work has also been considered in estimating a Scottish figure for all road casualties in Article 3.
6.2 Investigation of trends in emergency hospital admissions
DfT investigated the trends in the hospitals' figures for road casualties in England, and reported some findings in an article in Road Casualties Great Britain 2006. DfT found that there was a large percentage increase between 2002-03 and 2005-06 in the total number of short stay admissions, both following a road accident and for other reasons, and that the increase was proportionately much greater for the latter. The article that practice for patients requiring short periods of observation and assessment has been to use assessment or short-stay admission wards for monitoring and for the benefit of the patient. DfT concluded that the rise (in England) in road traffic emergency admissions via A&E did not therefore necessarily equate to an actual rise in the number of road traffic accidents, but more likely represented a change in practice over that time.
The Information Services Division (ISD) of the Scottish Health Service has provided the numbers of emergency hospital admissions in Scotland following a road traffic accident broken down by the length of stay. These show a 15% increase between 1996-97 and 2005-06 in the number of stays of length 0 days. Over the same period, there was a fall in the number of longer stays (both for 1 day and 2+ days in length): had the number of 0 day stays fallen at the same rate, there would have been roughly 240 fewer emergency hospital admissions following a road traffic accident in 2005-06, and the drop since 1996-67 would have been about 4-5%-points greater. However, there would still have been a marked difference between what would then be a fall of 19-20% in emergency hospital admissions and the fall of 33% in the Stats 19 KSI figure.
Hospital administrative procedures
It may be suggested that hospitals' figures may not provide reliable road casualty trends because they could be affected by national administrative changes - e.g. the introduction of targets for A&E waiting times could lead to casualties who would previously have left A&E following treatment after waiting more than (say) 4 hours now being admitted to hospital, and therefore now being counted as an admission following a road accident. On such points, it should be noted that:
- we understand that the A&E waiting time target for Scottish hospitals was introduced in December 2004 (and that it didn't have to be met until the end of 2007), so it cannot have caused the difference between the trends shown by the Stats 19 and hospitals figures between 1996 and 2004;
- ISD's figures show that stays of length 0 days have increased fairly gradually, as a proportion of all emergency admissions following a road traffic accident, from 13% in 1996-97 through 14% in 1999-00 and 16% in 2002-03 to 18% in 2005-06 - there has not been the kind of sudden rise that might be expected if a significant change in practice had been applied across the country with effect from a particular date;
- ISD's figures also show a 15% increase, between 1996-97 and 2005-06, in the total number of stays of length 0 days for emergency admissions following all types of unintentional injury - over that period, they rose (again fairly gradually) from 18% to 23% of all such admissions, so again there is no evidence of a sudden change
These gradual increases in short stay emergency hospital admissions would be consistent with an increasing tendency to admit patients, of the kind that was mentioned in the DfT article.
The DfT article in Road Casualties Great Britain 2006 also mentioned some other factors which may have affected the trend in the figures for hospital admissions in England:
- improvements in the coding of the English hospitals' data. Since 1996, there has been increased validation of external cause codes and other improvements in coding. In addition, an improved IT system was introduced in 2002/03, which allowed for 14 diagnosis codes (rather than the 7 used previously). Some road casualties with extensive injuries would require more than 7 codes and, as the external cause code is always the last in the sequence, would not have been identifiable as such in the data collected previously.
- the introduction of Payment by Results has increased the importance of the data, and hence of the accuracy and number of codes recorded, because each Primary Care Trust in England is charged for the hospital treatment of its residents according to factors such as the length of stay and the severity and number of their conditions
However, ISD advises that such factors are unlikely to have had any effect on the figures for Scotland: there has been no change in past few years in the number of diagnosis codes (six) which is used in the Scottish system, and there is no Scottish equivalent of Payment by Results.
6.3 Pedal cyclist casualties - DfT comparison of English Stats 19 and hospitals figures
As noted earlier, pedal cyclists are the type of casualty most under-reported in the Stats 19 returns. DfT's article in Road Casualties Great Britain 2006 compared the Stats 19 and English Hospitals Episode Statistics (HES) data for pedal cyclist casualties. In England, in the 2005-06 financial year, HES had 7,065 admissions of pedal cyclists, whereas Stats 19 recorded only 2,092 seriously injured pedal cyclists. DfT found that
- almost all the difference was due to HES having 4,268 pedal cyclists who had not been involved in a collision (e.g. people who just fell, or were thrown from, a bicycle which had not collided with any other vehicle), whereas Stats 19 had only 101 such casualties.
- the figures for pedal cyclists who had been involved in a collision with another vehicle do not differ as greatly (the relevant figures are HES: 2,186; Stats 19: 1,899).
- there was little difference between the number of casualties in HES and Stats 19 for pedal cyclist accidents which also involved cars, motorcycles, goods vehicles or buses. The differences were proportionately much larger in the case of pedal cyclists who had collided with an object, a pedestrian or an animal, another cyclist or an other vehicle.
- the distributions by age of HES and Stats 19 pedal cyclist casualties differed greatly - for example, in each of the 8-11 and 12-15 age-groups, HES had 1,000+ whereas Stats 19 had only a few hundred. However, when DfT excluded the no collision cases, it found clear similarities between the two distributions by age of pedal cyclist casualties who had been involved in a collision
DfT suggested that the differences might be due to two factors. First, if the location of an accident is not specified in the patient's records, it will be assumed that it was a traffic accident. This may mean that some off-road accidents are counted as traffic accidents, and non-collision pedal cycle accidents may be particularly vulnerable to this. Second, accidents in which a pedal cyclist is the only participant are relatively unlikely to be reported to the police.
The current definitions of the Stats 19 returns make it clear that accidents which involve no collision pedal cyclist casualties should be counted. However, DfT's analysis of the English HES data shows clearly that Stats 19 includes only a tiny proportion of no collision pedal cyclist casualties - presumably, those involved in such accidents are very unlikely to see any need to inform the Police about them, with the result that the Stats 19 returns include very few no collision pedal cyclist casualties.
The same may well be the case in Scotland. ISD has looked at the data for Scottish hospitals' emergency admissions of pedal cyclists in the 2005-06 financial year. There were 420:
- 102 had collided with another road user (e.g. a pedestrian, a car, another pedal cycle, etc);
- 18 had collided with a fixed object;
- 275 were non-collision cases; and
- 25 for whom such information was not recorded
The sum of the 120 who were known to be involved in a collision and a proportion of the 25 unknown cases would give a result which would be close to the Stats 19 figure of 132 pedal cyclists killed or seriously injured in the 2005 calendar year - so it seems likely that more detailed analysis of the Scottish hospitals' data for pedal cyclists would produce results similar to those which DfT has obtained from the English data.
6.4 Linkage of STATS 19 and Scottish hospital in-patient data
TRL Report 420 (published in 1999) contains a comparison of the police Stats 19 road accident statistics for serious injury (the definition of which includes any non-fatal-within-30-days-injury for which the casualty is detained in hospital as an in-patient) and Scottish Hospital In Patient System (SHIPS) figures for emergency hospital admissions as a result of a road traffic accident from 1980 until 1995. These sets of figures show similar downward trends (that report's series of SHIPS figures was used to produce the hospital 1980-1995 line in Figure 10).
SafetyNet
In addition TRL's work also contributed to SafetyNet - an Integrated Project part funded by the European Commission which ran for 4 years from May 2004. One task of the project dealt with the "estimation of the real number of road casualties". This was achieved by comparing in eight countries the details of road accident casualties recorded in the national road accident database with those who have been recorded in hospital records.
TRL carried out the UK contribution and compared Scottish STATS19 casualty records from 1997-2005 with medical records from the Scottish Hospital In-Patient System (SHIPS). This report is available at:
6.5 Previous research
- Under-reporting of road accidents: Phase 1 (Road Safety Research Report 69) by Heather Ward, Ronan Lyons and Roselle Thoreau;
- Road Accident Casualties: a comparison of STATS19 data with Hospital Episodes Statistics.
| All ages | Children4 | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NRS: deaths from road traffic accidents1 | Hospital emergency admissions resulting from Road Traffic Accidents2 | Police Stats 19 statistics3 | Hospital emergency admissions resulting from Road Traffic Accidents2 | Police Stats 19 statistics3 | ||||||||||
| reported road casualties | reported road deaths | KSI | ||||||||||||
| Killed | Seriously injured | Killed & Seriously Injured (KSI) | NRS: difference | NRS: % | % of hospitals emergency admiss. | Killed & Seriously Injured (KSI) | % of hospitals emergency admiss. | |||||||
| 1980 | 753 | 8,744 | 700 | 8,839 | 9,539 | -53 | 93% | 109% | ||||||
| 1981 | 732 | 9,080 | 677 | 8,840 | 9,517 | -55 | 92% | 105% | ||||||
| 1982 | 749 | 8,664 | 701 | 9,260 | 9,961 | -48 | 94% | 115% | ||||||
| 1983 | 656 | 7,512 | 624 | 7,633 | 8,257 | -32 | 95% | 110% | ||||||
| 1984 | 621 | 7,650 | 599 | 7,727 | 8,326 | -22 | 96% | 109% | ||||||
| 1985 | 614 | 7,521 | 602 | 7,786 | 8,388 | -12 | 98% | 112% | ||||||
| 1986 | 615 | 7,065 | 601 | 7,422 | 8,023 | -14 | 98% | 114% | ||||||
| 1987 | 586 | 6,349 | 556 | 6,707 | 7,263 | -30 | 95% | 114% | ||||||
| 1988 | 564 | 6,546 | 554 | 6,732 | 7,286 | -10 | 98% | 111% | ||||||
| 1989 | 564 | 6,665 | 553 | 6,998 | 7,551 | -11 | 98% | 113% | ||||||
| 1990 | 555 | 6,461 | 546 | 6,252 | 6,798 | -9 | 98% | 105% | ||||||
| 1991 | 521 | 6,148 | 491 | 5,638 | 6,129 | -30 | 94% | 100% | ||||||
| 1992 | 472 | 5,890 | 463 | 5,176 | 5,639 | -9 | 98% | 96% | ||||||
| 1993 | 410 | 5,399 | 399 | 4,454 | 4,853 | -11 | 97% | 90% | ||||||
| 1994 | 359 | 5,411 | 363 | 5,208 | 5,571 | 4 | 101% | 103% | ||||||
| 1995 | 427 | 5,321 | 409 | 4,930 | 5,339 | -18 | 96% | 100% | ||||||
| 1996 | 367 | 5,106 | 357 | 4,041 | 4,398 | -10 | 97% | 86% | 996 | 790 | 79% | |||
| 1997 | 389 | 5,316 | 377 | 4,047 | 4,424 | -12 | 97% | 83% | 1,116 | 745 | 67% | |||
| 1998 | 390 | 5,289 | 385 | 4,072 | 4,457 | -5 | 99% | 84% | 1,079 | 698 | 65% | |||
| 1999 | 324 | 4,941 | 310 | 3,765 | 4,075 | -14 | 96% | 82% | 1,012 | 625 | 62% | |||
| 2000 | 343 | 4,904 | 326 | 3,568 | 3,894 | -17 | 95% | 79% | 978 | 561 | 57% | |||
| 2001 | 369 | 4,881 | 348 | 3,410 | 3,758 | -21 | 94% | 77% | 893 | 544 | 61% | |||
| 2002 | 321 | 4,700 | 304 | 3,229 | 3,533 | -17 | 95% | 75% | 865 | 527 | 61% | |||
| 2003 | 351 | 4,426 | 336 | 2,957 | 3,293 | -15 | 96% | 74% | 776 | 432 | 56% | |||
| 2004 | 326 | 4,373 | 308 | 2,766 | 3,074 | -18 | 94% | 70% | 693 | 384 | 55% | |||
| 2005 | 294 | 4,389 | 286 | 2,666 | 2,952 | -8 | 97% | 67% | 696 | 368 | 53% | |||
| 2006 | 327 | 4,304 | 314 | 2,635 | 2,949 | -13 | 96% | 69% | 633 | 375 | 59% | |||
| 2007 | 295 | 3,902 | 281 | 2,385 | 2,666 | -14 | 95% | 68% | 452 | 278 | 62% | |||
| 2008 | 274 | 3,656 | 270 | 2,574 | 2,844 | -4 | 99% | 78% | 366 | 299 | 82% | |||
| 2009 | 241 | 216 | 2,286 | 2,502 | -25 | 90% | 258 | |||||||
| 2010 | 219 | 208 | 1,964 | 2,172 | -11 | 95% | 227 | |||||||
| Change from 2000 to 2010 | ||||||||||||||
| -36% | -36% | -45% | -44% | -60% | ||||||||||
| Overall averages | ||||||||||||||
| 1980 - 2008 | 96% | 93% | ||||||||||||
| 1980 - 1995 | 96% | 107% | ||||||||||||
| 1996 - 2008 | 96% | 76% | 63% | |||||||||||
1 Deaths caused by road transport accidents (NRS Web site Table 6.10 Deaths from road transport accidents)
2 Financial years from 1996 onwards (www.isdscotland.org/unintentional_injuries). Figures prior to 1996 raken from Table 1 of TRL report 420 Linkage of STATS19 and Scottish hospital in-patient data
3 Figures on the same basis as the rest of this publication
4 Children covers ages 0-15 inclusive in the Police (Stats 19) statistics, and ages 0-14 inclusive in the hospitals emergency admissions figures
| Hospital emergency admissions1 | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All ages | Children (0-14) | ||||||||||
| Pedest-rians | Pedal cyclists | Motor-cyclists | Car | Other | All types of road user 2 | Pedest-rians | Pedal cyclists | Car | Other | All types of road user 2 | |
| 1996-97 | 1,370 | 435 | 352 | 2,382 | 567 | 5,106 | 590 | 198 | 139 | 69 | 996 |
| 1997-98 | 1,264 | 643 | 481 | 2,308 | 620 | 5,316 | 552 | 357 | 136 | 71 | 1,116 |
| 1998-99 | 1,168 | 681 | 421 | 2,426 | 593 | 5,289 | 470 | 390 | 145 | 74 | 1,079 |
| 1999-00 | 1,126 | 663 | 518 | 2,027 | 607 | 4,941 | 473 | 379 | 108 | 52 | 1,012 |
| 2000-01 | 987 | 623 | 522 | 2,180 | 592 | 4,904 | 419 | 349 | 133 | 77 | 978 |
| 2001-02 | 999 | 544 | 591 | 2,198 | 549 | 4,881 | 424 | 286 | 129 | 54 | 893 |
| 2002-03 | 937 | 502 | 569 | 2,121 | 571 | 4,700 | 390 | 269 | 139 | 67 | 865 |
| 2003-04 | 804 | 507 | 528 | 2,032 | 551 | 4,422 | 322 | 273 | 129 | 52 | 776 |
| 2004-05 | 855 | 451 | 524 | 1,934 | 600 | 4,364 | 331 | 203 | 82 | 75 | 691 |
| 2005-06 | 894 | 420 | 526 | 1,937 | 585 | 4,362 | 336 | 190 | 105 | 61 | 692 |
| Reported killed and seriously injured (Police Stats 19 figures1) | |||||||||||
| All ages | Children (0-15) | ||||||||||
| Pedest-rians | Pedal cyclists | Motor-cyclists | Car | Other | All types of road user | Pedest-rians | Pedal cyclists | Car | Other | All types of road user | |
| 1996 | 1,279 | 216 | 300 | 2,293 | 310 | 4,398 | 540 | 100 | 118 | 32 | 790 |
| 1997 | 1,211 | 210 | 358 | 2,365 | 280 | 4,424 | 505 | 78 | 138 | 24 | 745 |
| 1998 | 1,156 | 210 | 371 | 2,390 | 330 | 4,457 | 455 | 64 | 153 | 26 | 698 |
| 1999 | 1,143 | 189 | 431 | 2,004 | 308 | 4,075 | 430 | 69 | 108 | 18 | 625 |
| 2000 | 997 | 176 | 475 | 1,978 | 268 | 3,894 | 378 | 65 | 94 | 24 | 561 |
| 2001 | 918 | 171 | 454 | 1,952 | 263 | 3,758 | 353 | 56 | 110 | 25 | 544 |
| 2002 | 893 | 152 | 456 | 1,782 | 250 | 3,533 | 340 | 46 | 111 | 30 | 527 |
| 2003 | 775 | 139 | 417 | 1,700 | 262 | 3,293 | 273 | 48 | 93 | 18 | 432 |
| 2004 | 750 | 128 | 395 | 1,581 | 220 | 3,074 | 247 | 40 | 77 | 20 | 384 |
| 2005 | 743 | 132 | 405 | 1,457 | 215 | 2,952 | 244 | 30 | 69 | 25 | 368 |
| 2006 | 749 | 141 | 410 | 1,433 | 216 | 2,949 | 248 | 40 | 70 | 17 | 375 |
| 2007 | 654 | 151 | 421 | 1,270 | 170 | 2,666 | 185 | 29 | 55 | 9 | 278 |
| 2008 | 705 | 164 | 430 | 1,355 | 190 | 2,844 | 198 | 20 | 69 | 12 | 299 |
| 2009 | 556 | 157 | 375 | 1,250 | 164 | 2,502 | 156 | 27 | 65 | 10 | 258 |
| 2010 | 502 | 145 | 353 | 1,006 | 166 | 2,172 | 151 | 24 | 41 | 11 | 227 |
| As a percentage of hospital admissions | |||||||||||
| 1996 | 93% | 50% | 85% | 96% | 55% | 86% | 92% | 51% | 85% | 46% | 79% |
| 1997 | 96% | 33% | 74% | 102% | 45% | 83% | 91% | 22% | 101% | 34% | 67% |
| 1998 | 99% | 31% | 88% | 99% | 56% | 84% | 97% | 16% | 106% | 35% | 65% |
| 1999 | 102% | 29% | 83% | 99% | 51% | 82% | 91% | 18% | 100% | 35% | 62% |
| 2000 | 101% | 28% | 91% | 91% | 45% | 79% | 90% | 19% | 71% | 31% | 57% |
| 2001 | 92% | 31% | 77% | 89% | 48% | 77% | 83% | 20% | 85% | 46% | 61% |
| 2002 | 95% | 30% | 80% | 84% | 44% | 75% | 87% | 17% | 80% | 45% | 61% |
| 2003 | 96% | 27% | 79% | 84% | 48% | 74% | 85% | 18% | 72% | 35% | 56% |
| 2004 | 88% | 28% | 75% | 82% | 37% | 70% | 75% | 20% | 94% | 27% | 56% |
| 2005 | 83% | 31% | 77% | 75% | 37% | 68% | 73% | 16% | 66% | 41% | 53% |
1 From ISD, identified using SMR admission type code 32 "Patient injury, Road Traffic Accident"
Road user type are bases on ICD10 diagnosis codes:
V01-V09 = "Pedestrian injured in transport accident"
V10-V19 = "Pedal cyclist injured in transport accident"
V20-V29 = "Motorcycle rider injured in transport accident"
V40-V49 = "Car occupant injured in transport accident"
the "Other" category includes users of (e.g.) buses, goods vehicles, etc - and any "road accident" deaths
which are due to suicide or natural causes (which should not be counted in the "Police" figures)
Figures on the same basis as figures appearing on ISD Web site "Unintentional Injuries" Table 9b
2 May differ slightly from the overall total in Table J, due to late returns and amendments
| Road casualties - all severities (Police Stats 19 figures)1 | Scottish Household Survey | Police Stats 19 as a % of SHS | Road casualties - all severities (Police Stats 19 figures)1 | Scottish Household Survey | Police Stats 19 as a % of SHS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age | 2006-2010 average | 1999- Mar 2003 and 2006 - 2010 | 2006-2010 average | 1999- Mar 2003 and 2006 - 2010 | ||
| percentages of adults | % | percentages of adults | % | |||
| All types of road user | Pedestrians | |||||
| 16-22 | 0.661 | 2.836 | 23% | 0.084 | 0.250 | 33% |
| 23-29 | 0.452 | 2.192 | 21% | 0.047 | 0.093 | 51% |
| 30-39 | 0.380 | 1.750 | 22% | 0.038 | 0.075 | 51% |
| 40-49 | 0.306 | 1.292 | 24% | 0.029 | 0.068 | 43% |
| 50-59 | 0.233 | 1.138 | 20% | 0.025 | 0.068 | 37% |
| 60-69 | 0.174 | 0.746 | 23% | 0.027 | 0.056 | 47% |
| 70+ | 0.164 | 0.553 | 30% | 0.039 | 0.126 | 31% |
| All adults | 0.324 | 1.443 | 22% | 0.039 | 0.099 | 39% |
| Pedal cyclists | Others - drivers/riders and passengers | |||||
| 16-22 | 0.017 | 0.111 | 15% | 0.560 | 2.475 | 23% |
| 23-29 | 0.022 | 0.180 | 12% | 0.383 | 1.919 | 20% |
| 30-39 | 0.024 | 0.149 | 16% | 0.318 | 1.526 | 21% |
| 40-49 | 0.018 | 0.120 | 15% | 0.258 | 1.104 | 23% |
| 50-59 | 0.010 | 0.071 | 14% | 0.198 | 0.999 | 20% |
| 60-69 | 0.005 | 0.050 | 11% | 0.142 | 0.640 | 22% |
| 70+ | 0.002 | 0.017 | 12% | 0.124 | 0.410 | 30% |
| All adults | 0.014 | 0.099 | 14% | 0.271 | 1.245 | 22% |
1 Derived from Table 32
Note that the SHS and Police Stats 19 figures are not on the same basis - for example:
( a ) they relate to different periods - the Stats 19 figures are calculated from the data for the
years from 2006 to 2010 inclusive, whereas the SHS figures are based on the combined data from
all the samples for which the question was asked (1999-March 2003 and 2006-2010)
( b) the SHS respondent is asked whether he/she was injured in a road accident in the past year.
An injury obtained 13-14 months ago might be counted, if the respondent couldn't
remember exactly when, which could inflate the SHS figures
( c ) the word injury is subjective - what an SHS respondent regards as an injury may differ from
what the Police would count as an injury, which could also affect the comparison
( d ) the SHS data relate only to adult members of Scottish households; the Stats 19 data will
include non-Scots who were injured in Scotland, and exclude Scots injured elsewhere