Reported Accidents by road type and severity

Table 4 shows separate figures for trunk roads and local authority roads. Trunk roads accounted for a minority of the total number of accidents in 2021: 30% of fatal accidents, 20% of serious accidents, and 20% of all accidents. The trunk road network's share of accident numbers in previous years were broadly similar.

Accident trends for different types of road will be affected by developments in the surrounding area (new city and town bypasses, construction of new roads with high average traffic flows etc.) Therefore, figures do not provide an accurate measure of the comparative change in the road safety performance of different types of road.

Several changes were made to the trunk road network with effect from 1^st April 1996. Appendix E refers to them, and explains why the 1994-98 averages for trunk roads and for local authority major roads have been calculated by counting accidents which occurred prior to 1^st April 1996 on the basis of whether they occurred on roads which were part of the post- 1 April 1996 trunk road network.

Accident rates

Accident rates showing the number of accidents per 100 million vehicle kilometres are contained in parts (b) and (c) of table 5. These are calculated by dividing the numbers of accidents on each type of road by the estimated volumes of traffic on those roads, which were provided by the Department for Transport, and which are available for all types of road with effect from 1993. The five-year average accident rates were calculated by dividing the total number of accidents which occurred in each five-year period by the total of the estimated volumes of traffic for the same period, rather than by calculating the averages of the individual accident rates for the five years.

Accident rates have fallen markedly since the early 1990s. The overall fatal accident rate has dropped from 0.0063 per 100 million vehicle kilometres in 2005 to 0.0031 in 2020 and the overall accident rate (all severities) reduced from 31.93 per 100 million vehicle kilometres to 8.98. Motorways had consistently lower accident rates than A roads. Leaving aside the relatively low rate for fatal accidents, minor roads (taken together as a group) tend to have higher accident rates than major roads, and accident rates tend to be higher for built-up roads (roads with speed limits of up to 40 mph) than for non built-up roads (ones with higher speed limits).

Part C of the table shows that estimated accident rates vary considerably by police force area. Some of this variation may be attributed to the distribution of traffic by road type within individual areas.

Accidents by month by road type

Table 6 refers.

The numbers of injury accidents over the years 2017-2021 were fairly evenly spread throughout the year, with minor peaks in January and July. (Months are standardised to 30 days to allow comparison).

On average, there were 12 fatal accidents per month in the years 2017 to 2021. Over the five year period, the number did not vary greatly between the months: the lowest average was 9, and the highest was 16.

Accidents by light condition and road type

Table 7 refers.

Using annual averages over the period 2017-2021, 5.4% of injury road accidents on non built-up roads in darkness (32 out of 590) resulted in one or more deaths compared with 1.7% of accidents on built-up roads in darkness (18 out of 1,065) and 4.3% of accidents on non built-up roads in daylight (72 out of 1,676).

Car driver accident rates

Table 18b refers.

This table includes all car drivers involved in injury accidents regardless of whether they were injured or not, on the basis of whatever information is known about their ages and their sex. For example, someone whose sex was known, but whose age was not known, will be included in the all ages total for the appropriate sex. The grand total includes those for whom neither the age nor the sex was known.

As the car driver accident rates shown for each sex and age group are on a per head of population basis, rather than based on the numbers of driving licence holders or on the distance driven, they can provide only a general indication of the relative accident rates for each group. The statistics do not provide a measure of the relative risk of each group as car drivers, because they do not take account of the differing levels of car driving by each group.

Age & Gender

Car driver accident rates per head of population vary markedly by age and sex. In 2021, the overall rate was 1 accident per thousand population aged 17+. The peak occurs for males in the 17-25 age group, with a rate of 1.9 per thousand population in 2021. This rate is over one and a half times those of females of the same age (1.1 per thousand in 2021).

The overall male car driver accident rate in 2021 was 1.3 per thousand population; the same as 2020 with rates for all age groups being the same as the previous year except for over 60 which was slightly higher. The overall female car driver accident rate in 2021 was 0.7 per thousand population and younger age groups showed slight decreases while older ages showed slight increases from the previous year.

Between 2011 and 2021, the male car driver accident rate fell from 3.5 to 1.3 per thousand population, while the female car driver accident rate has declined slowly from 2.0 to 0.7 per thousand in 2021. As a result, the overall, ratio of male to female car driver accident rates has increased from 1.8: 1 for 2011 to 1.9 : 1 in 2021.

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