UK Casualty Report

29 September 2022

The UK Department for Transport has issued its annual report for 2021, which shows that road casualties showed signs of a return to pre-pandemic trends, increasing compared to 2020 when casualty numbers were low, largely as a result of periods of lockdown resulting in a reduction in road traffic.

As the first half of 2021 also had a lockdown, the overall figures for 2021 remain lower than pre-pandemic levels. Over the second half of the year, both casualties and traffic returned to levels similar to those in 2019. Monthly changes in casualties during 2021 generally showed a similar trend to changes in motor vehicle traffic levels.

These final statistics show:

• an estimated 1,558 reported road deaths in 2021, a decrease of 11% from pre-pandemic levels (2019)
• a rate of 5.2 fatalities per billion vehicle miles in 2021, a higher rate compared with 2019 and a lower rate compared with 2020
• an estimated 27,450 killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties in 2021, a decrease of 11% compared to 2019, with a casualty rate of 91 KSIs per billion vehicle miles, a similar rate compared with 2019
• an estimated 128,209 casualties of all severities in 2021, a decrease of 16% compared to 2019, with 425 casualties per billion vehicle miles, a lower rate compared with 2019

The full report is available here.