Cycling: Accidents

(asked on 23rd June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of cyclists killed as a result of poor quality roads in each of the last 10 years.


Answered by
Chris Heaton-Harris Portrait
Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
This question was answered on 1st July 2020

Contributory factors assigned by police officers do not assign blame for the accident to any specific road user, however they do provide some insight into why and how road accidents occur. They give an indication of which factors the attending officer thought contributed to the accident. Officers do not need to carry out a full investigation of the incident before allocating contributory factors; they usually use professional judgement about what they can see at the scene. Not all accidents are included in the contributory factor data; only accidents where the police attended the scene and reported at least one contributory factor are included.

The number of pedal cyclists killed in road accidents where a contributory factor of ‘Poor or defective road surface’ was reported, in Great Britain, between the years 2009 and 2018 can be found in the below table:

Pedal cyclist killed in accidents where contributory factor1 of 'Poor or defective road surface' was reported, Great Britain, 2009-2018

Year

Number of cyclists killed

2009

1

2010

6

2011

3

2012

3

2013

1

2014

1

2015

1

2016

4

2017

1

2018

3

Source: DfT, STATS19

1 Includes only those killed in accidents where a police officer attended the scene and in which a contributory factor was reported.

Poor or defective road surface

Includes any obvious road surface defect such as potholes and cracks. Also includes roads where a worn surface or poor skid resistance is thought to have contributed to the accident.

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