Article 1: Casualty Reduction Targets: Scotland's Road Safety Framework to 2020

Article 1: Casualty Reduction Targets: Scotland's Road Safety Framework to 2020

Figure 8 Progress towards the 2020 casualty reduction targets

(A) Reported casualties killed

(A) Reported casualties killed

(B) Reported seriously Injured casualties

(B) Reported seriously Injured casualties

(C) Reported children killed

(C) Reported children killed

(B) Reported child seriously Injured casualties

(B) Reported child seriously Injured casualties

Article 1: Casualty Reduction Targets: Scotland's Road Safety Framework to 2020

1. Introduction

Scotland's Road Safety Framework was launched in June 2009. It set out the vision for road safety in Scotland, the main priorities and issues and included Scotland-specific targets and milestones which were adopted from 2010.

Target 2015 milestone % reduction 2020 target % reduction
People killed 30% 40%
People seriously injured 43% 55%
Children (aged < 16) killed 35% 50%
Children (aged < 16) seriously injured 50% 65%

Each reduction target will be assessed against the 2004-08 average. In addition to the targets a 10 per cent reduction target in the slight casualty rate will continue to be adopted.

The four main targets differ to previous targets in that deaths have been separated out from serious injuries as, in recent years, trends have been different - serious injuries falling steadily but deaths declining at a lower rate.

The targets are deliberately challenging, particularly for child deaths as the child fatality rate in Scotland is higher than in England and Wales. The child fatality target itself will be monitored using a 3 year rolling average due to the small numbers of fatalities each year.

To illustrate the reductions necessary the following table show the level of casualties inferred by the 2015 milestones and 2020 targets above.

  2004-2008 average 2015 milestone 2020 target
People killed 292 204 175
People seriously injured 2,605 1,484 1,172
Children (aged < 16) killed 15 10 8
Children (aged < 16) seriously injured 325 163 114

Charts showing indicative lines of progress are in figure 8. More detail about the calculation of these indicative lines is included in section 5 below.

2 Summary of Progress

The 2011 figures show:

  • 186 people were reported as killed in 2011, 36 per cent (106) below the 2004-2008 average of 292 - so the reduction is below the 2015 milestone.
  • 1,875 people were reported as seriously injured in 2011, 28 per cent (730) below the 2004-2008 average of 2,605 - so the reduction is just below the trajectory.
  • 7 children were reported as killed in 2011, an average of 5 a year in the 2009-2011 period, 67 per cent (10) below the 2004-2008 average of 15, and below the 2015 milestone and 2020 target of a 50 per cent fall.
  • 203 children were reported as seriously injured in 2011, 60 per cent (122) below the 2004-2008 average of 325 and below the trajectory for the 2015 milestone.
  • The slight casualty rate of 24.68 casualties per 100 million vehicle kilometres in 2011 was 24 per cent below the 2004-2008 baseline average of 32.47.

Figure 8 shows progress towards the casualty reduction targets for 2020.

3 Modes of Transport

Table Ib shows progress against the 2020 targets by mode of transport.

Numbers killed

As shown in Table Ia below, a reduction of 18 per cent compared to the baseline was required in 2011 to remain on the trajectory for this target. The overall reduction for 2011 is 36 per cent.

Percentage reductions are not recorded in Table Ib where the denominator is 50 or fewer so percentage changes on 2004-2008 have only been calculated for cars and pedestrian fatalities. Car fatalities are down 45 per cent on the baseline which exceeds the 2020 target. Pedestrian fatalities are down by a third from the baseline, a greater reduction than the trajectory.

Casualty numbers for all other modes in 2011 are below the numbers implied by the trajectory, except for the 'Other' category which includes taxis and minibuses. The numbers in this category are small and the 4 fatalities in 2011 is a reduction of one compared to 2010.

Numbers Seriously Injured

As shown in Table Ia below, a reduction of just under 27 per cent compared to the baseline was required in 2011 to remain on the trajectory for this target. The overall reduction for 2011 is 28 per cent.

Table Ib shows that only car serious injuries have fallen by a greater percentage than that implied by the trajectory. The numbers of car drivers and passengers seriously injured has fallen by 40 per cent since the baseline. All other modes have seen a fall when compared to the baseline, however pedestrian, pedal cycle and goods vehicle seriously injured casualties have seen an increase since 2010 of 12 per cent, 13 per cent and 5 per cent respectively. There has also been an increase in the numbers seriously injured in the 'other' category.

Children killed

The number of child fatalities is relatively small and the average of 5 over the last three years is below the 50 per cent reduction target set for 2020. Table Ib shows that the average number of child fatalities for 2009-2011 for each mode is below the 2004-2008 baseline.

Pedestrian fatalities have fallen from an average of 6 per year in 2004-2008 to an average of just over 1 per year in 2009-2011. Pedal Cycle fatalities has fallen from an average of 2 per year in the baseline period to an average of 1 in the last three years. The number of fatalities as passengers in cars has fallen as well from an average of 6 per year in the baseline period to 3 per year in the 2009-2011 period, however numbers increased in 2011 to five fatalities.

Children seriously injured

As shown in Table Ia below, a reduction of just under 32 per cent compared to the baseline was required in 2011 to remain on the trajectory for this target. The overall reduction for 2011 is 38 per cent.

Table Ib shows that car and pedestrian serious injuries have fallen by a greater percentage than that implied by the trajectory, 45 per cent and 36 per cent respectively. Percentages have not been calculated for other modes due to small denominators. Comparing absolute values, pedal cycle serious injuries are above the figure implied by the trajectory (23 in 2011 compared to a trajectory figure of 10) as are bus / coach (4 in 2011 compared to 1 implied by the trajectory. The figures for all modes in 2011 are below the 2004-2008 baseline apart from bus / coach where there were 4 serious injuries in 2011 compared to an average of 3 in the baseline period.

Slightly injured casualties

Because of the limited availability of detailed reliable road traffic estimates for Scotland, Table Ia shows the numbers of slight casualties (rather than slight casualty rates) for categories of road user. The table also shows the overall total volume of traffic and the overall slight casualty rate.

Table Ib shows that slight injuries per million vehicle kilometres are 35 per cent below the 2004-2008 average.

The number of slight casualties has fallen compared to the baseline for all modes of transport. The largest reductions are seen for bus / coach, pedestrian and 'other', 35 per cent, 30 per cent and 29 per cent respectively. Car users make up two thirds of slight casualties and there has been a reduction of a quarter compared to the baseline period. Pedal cycles on the other hand have shown an 8 per cent increase on the 2004-2008 average. There is some evidence to suggest that this increase is smaller than the increase in cyclists on the road over the same period. All modes have seen a fall in slight casualty numbers on the previous year, except for pedal cycles which saw an increase of 4 per cent on the 2010 figures.

4. Other statistics for monitoring progress

Table 40 in the main section of this publication shows the baseline figures for each local authority area for the four targets relating to numbers killed and seriously injured (separately for trunk roads, local authority roads and all roads), along with the corresponding figures for each of the past 10 years and the latest five years' averages. Table 41 provides figures for each local authority area related to the numbers slightly injured, and Table 42 shows figures for each Police Force area related to all five targets. In addition, many other tables include the 2004-2008 baseline averages.

5. Assessing progress towards the casualty reduction targets

One way of assessing progress towards the targets is to compare actual casualty numbers in each year with an indicative line that starts at the baseline figure in 2006 (mid point of the 2004 to 2008 average) and falls, by a constant percentage reduction in each subsequent year, to the milestone for 2015 and from there to the target for 2020. This is the approach adopted by the GB Road Safety Advisory Panel. The indicative line starts at the baseline figure in 2006 as that is the middle year of the baseline period. Other approaches could have been used: there are many ways of producing lines that indicate how casualty numbers might fall fairly steadily to the targets for 2020.

The method adopted to produce the indicative target lines shown in Figure 8 involves a constant percentage reduction in each year after 2006 to the 2015 milestone, then a constant percentage reduction between 2015 and 2020. The resulting indicative target lines represent the percentages of the baseline averages which are shown in the table below. They are not straight lines, because of the compounding over the years effect of constant annual percentage reductions (to two decimal places, the falls are: 3.89% per annum for killed to meet the 2015 milestone and 3.02% between 2015 and 2020. For seriously injured casualties the falls are 6.06% and 4.61%. For child killed 4.67% and 4.37 or children seriously injured 7.41% and 6.90.

Table Ia Constant percentage reductions needed to achieve 2015 and 2020 targets
Killed Serious Child killed Child serious
% baseline (milestone from 2015) % reduction from baseline (milestone) % baseline (milestone from 2015) % reduction from baseline (milestone) % baseline (milestone from 2015) % reduction from baseline (milestone) % baseline (milestone from 2015) % reduction from baseline (milestone)
2006 100%   100%   100% 100%
2007 96.1% 3.9% 93.9% 6.1% 95.3% 4.7% 92.6% 7.4%
2008 92.4% 7.6% 88.3% 11.7% 90.9% 9.1% 85.7% 14.3%
2009 88.8% 11.2% 82.9% 17.1% 86.6% 13.4% 79.4% 20.6%
2010 85.3% 14.7% 77.9% 22.1% 82.6% 17.4% 73.5% 26.5%
2011 82.0% 18.0% 73.2% 26.8% 78.7% 21.3% 68.0% 32.0%
2012 78.8% 21.2% 68.7% 31.3% 75.0% 25.0% 63.0% 37.0%
2013 75.8% 24.2% 64.6% 35.4% 71.5% 28.5% 58.3% 41.7%
2014 72.8% 27.2% 60.7% 39.3% 68.2% 31.8% 54.0% 46.0%
2015 70.0% 30.0% 57.0% 43.0% 65.0% 35.0% 50.0% 50.0%
2015 100%   100%   100% 100%
2016 97.0% 3.0% 95.4% 4.6% 95.6% 4.4% 93.1% 6.9%
2017 94.1% 5.9% 91.0% 9.0% 91.5% 8.5% 86.7% 13.3%
2018 91.2% 8.8% 86.8% 13.2% 87.5% 12.5% 80.7% 19.3%
2019 88.5% 11.5% 82.8% 17.2% 83.7% 16.3% 75.1% 24.9%
2020 85.8% 14.2% 79.0% 21.0% 80.0% 20.0% 69.9% 30.1%

 

Table Ib: Reported killed casualties by mode of transport
Pedestrian Pedal cycle Motor cycle Car Bus/coach Goods1 Other2 All road users
2004-08 average 65 9 42 162 1 12 2 292
2004 76 7 42 167 3 12 1 308
2005 66 16 34 153 - 15 2 286
2006 61 10 58 175 - 8 2 314
2007 60 4 40 160 - 15 2 281
2008 60 9 34 153 1 8 5 270
2009 47 5 43 116 - 5 - 216
2010 47 7 35 105 1 8 5 208
2011 43 7 33 89 1 9 4 186
07-11 ave 51 6 37 125 1 9 3 232
2020 target 39 6 25 97 0 7 1 175
Percent changes:
2011 on 2010 * * * -15 * * * -11
2011 on 2004-08 average -33 * * -45 * * * -36

Reported seriously injured casualties by mode of transport
Pedestrian Pedal cycle Motor cycle Car Bus/coach Goods1 Other2 All road users
2004-08 average 656 134 371 1,258 55 82 51 2,605
2004 674 121 353 1,414 63 83 58 2,766
2005 677 116 371 1,304 63 83 52 2,666
2006 688 131 352 1,258 57 91 58 2,635
2007 594 147 381 1,110 33 87 33 2,385
2008 645 155 396 1,203 59 65 52 2,575
2009 509 152 332 1,136 36 73 50 2,288
2010 457 138 319 902 52 60 40 1,968
2011 513 156 293 756 51 63 43 1,875
07-11 ave 544 150 344 1,021 46 70 44 2,218
2020 target 295 60 167 566 25 37 23 1,172
Percent changes:
2011 on 2010 12 13 -8 -16 -2 5 * -5
2011 on 2004-08 average -22 16 -21 -40 -7 -23 -15 -28

 

Reported children (0-15) killed by mode of transport
Pedestrian Pedal cycle Motor cycle Car Bus/coach Goods1 Other2 All road users
2004-08 average 6 2 0 6 - 0 0 15
2004 8 - 1 3 - - - 12
2005 5 4 - 1 - - 1 11
2006 9 5 - 10 - 1 - 25
2007 4 1 - 4 - - - 9
2008 4 2 1 13 - - - 20
2009 1 1 - 3 - - - 5
2010 1 1 1 1 - - - 4
2011 2 - - 5 - - - 7
07-11 ave 2 1 - 5 - - - 9
2020 target 3 1 0 3 - 0 0 8
09-11 ave 1 1 - 3 - - - 5
Percent changes:
09-2011 on 2004-08 average * * * * * * * *

 

Reported child (0-15) seriously injured casualties by mode of transport
Pedestrian Pedal cycle Motor cycle Car Bus/coach Goods1 Other2 All road users
2004-08 average 218 29 8 62 3 1 3 325
2004 239 40 9 74 3 3 4 372
2005 239 26 11 68 6 2 5 357
2006 239 35 10 60 4 - 2 350
2007 181 28 4 51 1 1 3 269
2008 194 18 5 56 2 1 3 279
2009 155 26 2 62 2 1 5 253
2010 150 23 3 40 7 - - 223
2011 139 23 2 34 4 - 1 203
07-11 ave 164 24 3 49 3 1 2 245
2020 target 76 10 3 22 1 0 1 114
Percent changes:
2011 on 2010 -7 * * * * * * -9
2011 on 2004-08 average -36 * * -45 * * * -38

 

Reported slight casualties by mode of transport
Pedestrian Pedal cycle Motor cycle Car Bus/coach Goods1 Other2 All road users Traffic Slight casualty rate
numbers mill veh-km per 100 mill veh-km
2004-08 average 2,135 613 637 9,187 693 503 431 14,200 37,653 37.71
2004 2,328 648 599 10,024 849 561 419 15,428 42,705 36.13
2005 2,308 649 677 9,532 794 495 478 14,933 42,718 34.96
2006 2,104 640 658 9,272 706 484 456 14,320 44,120 32.46
2007 2,049 563 640 8,793 590 506 431 13,572 44,666 30.39
2008 1,887 566 612 8,314 527 467 373 12,746 44,470 28.66
2009 1,643 647 646 8,327 437 423 416 12,539 44,219 28.36
2010 1,510 636 491 7,293 487 386 359 11,162 43,488 25.67
2011 1,503 661 482 6,925 451 382 305 10,709 43,390 24.68
07-11 ave 1,718 615 574 7,930 498 433 377 12,146 44,047 27.57
2020 target 33.94
Percent changes:
2011 on 2010 0 4 -2 -5 -7 -1 -15 -4 0 -4
2011 on 2004-08 average -30 8 -24 -25 -35 -24 -29 -25 15 -35

1. Light goods vehicles and heavy goods vehicles.
2. Taxis, minibuses and other modes of transport
* Indicates that a percentage change is not shown because the denominator is 50 or fewer.