Roads: Accidents

(asked on 15th April 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of lower traffic levels in 2020 on the number of road traffic casualties in that year.


Answered by
Rachel Maclean Portrait
Rachel Maclean
This question was answered on 20th April 2021

Detailed data on reported personal injury road accidents in Great Britain for 2020 will be published in September 2021. Provisional estimates of reported road casualties in Great Britain for the year ending June 2020 were published in January 2021.

Provisional estimates suggest that the total number of road casualties in Great Britain between January and June 2020 was 30% lower than in the first six months of 2019. Motor traffic levels in the first half of 2020 also decreased by 30% compared to those in the first half of 2019. The overall casualty rate remained consistent between the two periods.

The change in road traffic and road casualties in the first half of 2020 compared to the previous year varied notably by month, with the most considerable reductions in both following the Government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown beginning during March 2020. Further details are available in the published report on provisional estimates of reported road casualties in Great Britain for the year ending June 2020, which can be accessed at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/956524/road-casualties-year-ending-june-2020.pdf

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