Preface
Preface
This publication presents detailed statistics about the circumstances of personal injury road accidents in Scotland that were reported by the police using the Stats 19 statistical returns (described in more detail in Appendix B). Each accident is classified according to the severity of the injury to the most seriously injured person involved in the accident. These statistics are used to inform public debate and support policy on road safety (through education and engineering programs).
This publication also includes statistics related to further analysis on specific road safety topics. For example:
- Valuation of road accident and casualties: Table 9 presents estimates of the value of preventing reported road accidents in GB and Scotland, based on DfT analysis.
- Drink drive estimates: Table 22 presents estimates of the levels of accidents and casualties involving drivers and riders with illegal alcohol levels using Procurator Fiscal data.
In addition to the statistical tables and commentary the publication contains 2 articles discussing further analysis of the statistics:
- Article 1 examines progress towards casualty reduction targets;
- Article 2 describes contributory factors attributed to reported road accidents and casualties.
Review of Stats 19
National & local government police forces across Great Britain work closely to achieve an agreed standard for the system for collecting & processing statistics on road accidents involving personal injury. The statistics are subject to regular reviews as part of the continued drive to improve quality and meet user needs whilst minimising the burden of collection.
Stats19 is currently under review, having previously been reviewed in 2008. This process is overseen by the Standing Committee on Road Accident Statistics (SCRAS) (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/committees-and-user-groups-ontransport-statistics/the-transport-statistics-user-group).
The review is seeking to:
- Make recommendations for modifications to Stats19 variables with a view to improving the quality/value of the data to users and to reducing reporting burdens on the police
- Identify areas where the Stats19 specification can be streamlined and modernised in order to reduce burdens, including improving validation at source and therefore overall increase the quality of data collected and speed up the ability to report/ produce findings
- Consider the scope and opportunities for better use of technology, data sharing and matching to modernise road casualty data. This is both with a view to reducing the amount of data needing to be manually rather than automatically input by the police, but also to enrich the data available to generate insight to improve road safety interventions.
- Develop a roadmap for any longer term data changes needed to improve the evidence base for road safety interventions.
The review will produce recommendations on modifications to the data collection which will be consulted upon.
For further information please contact: STATS19REVIEW@dft.gov.uk
Office for Statistics Regulation compliance check
In 2019, these statistics were assessed against the Code of Practice for Official Statistics by the Office for Statistics Regulation. The outcome of the review was that these statistics should continue to be classified as national statistics. More information about the findings of the review is available here:
Further details on the role of the UKSA and the assessment process can be found at:
https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/our-regulatory-work/
The status of the statistics
Most of the data used in this publication were extracted from the Road Accidents statistical database on the 11 September 2020. The statistics given here may differ slightly from those published elsewhere (e.g. provisional figures published in Key Reported Road Casualty Statistics in June) because they were extracted on a different date and wouldn’t incorporate any later changes (e.g. due to late returns or late corrections). Any late returns will be incorporated into the next available publication.
The information held in Transport Scotland’s Road Accident Statistics database was collected by the police following each accident, and subsequently reported to Transport Scotland. Transport Scotland’s statistics may differ slightly from the local authorities as changes or corrections that local authorities may have made, for use at local level, to their own data may not always be accounted for in the Transport Scotland database.
Casualty severity changes
From around June/July 2019 Police Scotland has been using a new accident and casualty data recording system called CRASH (Collision Reporting and Sharing). Before the introduction of CRASH, police officers would use their own judgement, based on official guidance, to determine the severity of the casualty (either ‘slight’ or ‘serious’). CRASH is an injury-based recording system where the officer records the most severe injury for the casualty. The system then automatically converts the injuries to a severity level from ‘slight’ to ‘serious’.
Since CRASH removes the uncertainty that arises from officers having to assess the severity of casualties based on their own judgement, severity information collected in this way is expected to be more accurate and consistent. However, the move to an injury-based reporting system tends to result in more casualties being classified as ‘serious’ and therefore causes a discontinuity in the time series. The Department for Transport has carried out analysis to show what historical figures would have looked like if CRASH had been used previously. More information on the adjustment methodology can be found at the end of this section.
The years covered in the tables
Some tables present a time series so that any trends can be identified. However, more detailed tables provide figures in the form of 5-year annual averages (e.g. 2015-2019), and do not present figures for the latest single year. This smooths out levels of variation often present with low numbers of accidents and casualties. If readers require versions of the detailed tables for single years, these can be provided on request.
Road casualty reduction targets
In many of the tables, the latest figures are compared with the annual averages for 2004-08. This is to allow comparison against the 2020 Scottish specific casualty reduction targets published within the Scottish Road Safety Framework in 2009.
Article 1 discusses these targets in more detail, monitoring progress and exploring differences between modes of travel. Due to the changes in casualty severity recording, progress against some of the targets is measured using the adjusted figures produced by the Department for Transport, which show what historical figures would have looked like if CRASH had been used previously.
Estimates of the total volume of road traffic
Some tables include estimates of traffic volumes, or accident or casualty rates calculated from them. The traffic estimates were provided by the Department for Transport (DfT), which produces estimates of the total volume of road traffic for Scotland and for other parts of Great Britain. Care should be taken when using these estimates and a detailed description can be found in Appendix D of this publication.
Other Scottish Transport Statistics
Reported Road Casualties Scotland is one of a series of Transport Statistics publications. Details of other Transport Scotland statistics can be found at http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/analysis/statistics.
| Article | Version of RRCS where article can be found |
|---|---|
| Estimating under- counting of Road Casualties in Scotland | RRCS 2010 http://bit.ly/2xSFW9v |
| Priorities in Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2020- An assessment of relative levels and trends | RRCS 2011 http://bit.ly/2yHMoz6 |
| Comparison of police casualty statistics with other sources | RRCS 2011 http://bit.ly/2yHMoz6 |
| Vulnerable road users | RRCS 2014 http://bit.ly/2yqZLrx |
| In Focus: Pedal and motorcycle casualties | RRCS 2013 http://bit.ly/2yXQcxb |
| Road User Factsheet | RRCS 2017 https://bit.ly/2IVRkbl |
| Casualty rates for local authority roads by local authority area, and the likely range of random year-to-year variation in these figures (see Appendix H) | RRCS 2018 https://bit.ly/2SW0GZg |
We welcome suggestions for improving the usefulness of the data and the publications. Comments and enquiries should be sent to the address below.
Jeanine Bezuijen
Statistician
Transport Statistics
Transport Scotland
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh EH6 6QQ
Telephone: 0131 244 3201
Email: Transtat@transport.gov.scot