What's The Lastest In Car Accident Stats In The UK?

In 1967 there were 199 casualties per 100 million vehicle kilometres. By 2007 this had declined to 48 per 100 million. The UK compares well with other countries. In 2006 it had one of the lowest road death rates in the EU and was lower than the United States, Australia and Japan.

Auto accident statistics show that 97% of all transport fatalities occur on roads. In 2009 there were nearly 231,000 road casualties in the UK. This only covers accidents reported to the authorities; the true figure is likely more.

The Department of Transport statistics showed that in 2010 the number of car occupant fatalities to be down 20% at 842. Industry experts believe the scrappage scheme, which came to an end in 2010, may have been a contributory factor.

A study by K. Rumar in 1985 found that ...

57% of crashes were due solely to driver factors,
27% to combined driver and roadway ones,
6% to combined vehicle and driver variables,
3% exclusively to roadway factors,
3% to combined driver, roadway, and vehicle ones,
2% solely to vehicle factors and
1% to combined vehicle and roadway factors:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_collision.

Some more statistics:

• In the UK in 2009, failing to look properly while driving was, at 38%, the most common contributory factor in causing accidents.
• Loss of control was cited in 36% of accidents which involved a fatality.
• Exceeding the speed limit was reported in 5% of accidents.
• Combined with adverse conditions, speeding was present in 13% of all accidents and 27% of all fatalities.
• A pedestrian failing to look properly was reported in 58% of pedestrian fatalities or serious injuries.

Good reference sites are the Department For Transport and UK National Statistics.

Generally, the overall trend for road traffic accidents in the UK is down. In this writer's opion, Britain is heading towards an extraordinary level of scrutiny of the behaviour of its road users. As evidence, I would cite, in the case of automobiles, the seizure and destruction of cars which are not insured.

It is quite something to see police and their delegated recovery teams sweeping an area for cars whose paperwork is not in order. The car gets marked with a white pen, lifted onto the back of a lorry and taken away.

Then there's the proliferation of traffic cameras. It's simply much harder to be a bad driver and get away with it. If uninsured vehicles are taken off the road, their dirvers, who are statistically more likely to cause accidents, will be taken off with them.

I sometimes wonder if the level of scrutiny of road traffic is down to the horrible, visual nature of the consequences of driving badly. Plus there are other involved, the innocents, as well as the police, who are rightly tired of having to deal with the results of someone chatting on a mobile phone while driving.