Casualties fall but VRUs remain a high risk.

17 May 2011

In the same week as ETSC reveals that the number of total road deaths decreased
considerably over the last decade, London shines as a safe city. Despite an overall fall in European casualties, the number of killed PTW riders actually increased in 13 EU countries.

A total of 169,000 pedestrians, cyclists and users of powered two wheeled vehicles (PTW) have been killed on European roads since 2001; 15,300 of them in 2009. These figures published in the newRoad Safety Performance Index (PIN) Flash amount to a decrease in the number of deaths by 34 per cent for pedestrians and cyclists, and just 18 percent for PTW riders compared to the baseline year of 2001. Deaths for car drivers went down by 39 per cent during the same period. 

 New figures published by the Mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL) show how road safety in London has improved dramatically over the last ten years exceeding both Government and City Hall targets. The new TfL figures reveal how deaths and serious injuries on London's roads have dropped by a staggering 57 per cent over the last decade.

Between the mid-to-late 1990s and 2009, the number of pedestrian and motorcyclist KSIs on London's roads fell by more than any other metropolitan area in Great Britain. All road user KSIs fell at the same rate as the West Midlands, and greater than any other metropolitan area in Great Britain.

The UK DfT will publish 'Reported Road Casualties Greater Britain: 2010' in September this year and  has also set out its plan toreplace the familiar casualty reduction targets with a number of performance indicators designed to help Government, local organisations and citizens to monitor the progress towards improving road safety and decreasing the number of fatalities and seriously injured casualties on Great British roads