Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, further to oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport of 24 April 2018, Official Report, column 356WH, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on road safety of the decision to eliminate safety targets; and what the killed or seriously injured figures were in each year from 2007 to 2017.
There is no robust academic evidence to indicate the lack of targets in the UK has contributed to the lack of progress in road casualty reduction since 2010. There has been a stalling of progress in road casualty reductions across many economically advanced countries, affecting countries with targets (e.g. Sweden and the Netherlands) as well as the UK where there is no target.
The KSI statistics for road accident casualties between 2007 and 2016 can be found in the table below along with a comparison to the 2010 – 2014 average. The KSI figures for 2017 will be published later this year.
Year | Killed | Seriously injured | Killed or Seriously injured | Slightly injured | All casualties |
2007 | 2,946 | 27,774 | 30,720 | 217,060 | 247,780 |
2008 | 2,538 | 26,034 | 28,572 | 202,333 | 230,905 |
2009 | 2,222 | 24,690 | 26,912 | 195,234 | 222,146 |
2010 | 1,850 | 22,660 | 24,510 | 184,138 | 208,648 |
2011 | 1,901 | 23,122 | 25,023 | 178,927 | 203,950 |
2012 | 1,754 | 23,039 | 24,793 | 170,930 | 195,723 |
2013 | 1,713 | 21,657 | 23,370 | 160,300 | 183,670 |
2014 | 1,775 | 22,807 | 24,582 | 169,895 | 194,477 |
2015 | 1,730 | 22,144 | 23,874 | 162,315 | 186,189 |
2016 | 1,792 | 24,101 | 25,893 | 155,491 | 181,384 |
2010 -2014 average | 1,799 | 22,657 | 24,456 | 172,838 | 197,294 |