UK casualties fall but alcohol related deaths rise

1 August 2013

Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain: Quarterly Provisional Estimates Q1 2013.

For reported road accidents in the year ending March 2013: 1,680 people were killed, a 10% drop from 1,870 in the year ending March 2012. The number of people killed or seriously injured fell to 23,660, a 6% decrease compared with the year to March 2012.

However the provisional estimates for 2012 show that there 290 people were killed in drink drive accidents in Great Britain (17% of all reported road fatalities), an increase of around a quarter compared with 2011.

There was a 4% decrease in seriously injured drink drive casualties in 2012, to around 1,200 (5% of all seriously injured road casualties).

Final estimates for 2011 show that there were 220 fatal drink drive accidents in 2011, resulting in 230 fatalities, the lowest number since detailed reporting began in 1979.

Key findings in the main report show:

• Overall for year ending March 2013 there were 188,890 reported road casualties (slightly and seriously injured casualties, and fatalities), 7% fewer than the 203,305 for the year ending March 2012.
• Total reported child casualties (ages 0-15) fell by 14% to 16,460 for the year ending March 2013 from 19,131 for the previous year, with those killed or seriously injured down 12% to 2,150.
• Motor vehicle traffic levels fell by 1% compared with the 12 month period ending March 2012.
• Weather effects - notably much colder mean temperatures in Q1 2013 than in Q1 2012 - are likely to have contributed to large year on year falls in the numbers of pedal cyclist casualties (down 23%) and motorcyclist casualties (down 27%) during Q1 2013. Also, car occupant casualties in Q1 2013 were down 12% on year, but weather effects appear less significant for these road users.

Further information is shown here.

Estimates for accidents involving illegal alcohol levels 2012 (provisional) and 2011 (final) are shown here.