The number of people killed or seriously injured on Britain’s roads last year was 40% lower than the 1994-98 average, meaning the Government has met its key road safety target for 2010, two years early.
The latest road casualty figures also reveal that the number of road deaths fell by 14% from 2,946 in 2007 to a record low of 2,538 in 2008 – the largest percentage fall in a single year in the post-war period. Last year, 28,567 people were killed or seriously injured.
The number of children KSIs fell by 9%, year-on-year, to 2,807, 59% below the 1994-98 baseline figure. The Government’s target – set in 2000 – of a 50% cut in children KSIs compared with the baseline figure had already been met.
The figures give the UK a provisional rate of 4.3 deaths per 100,000 population. Based on provisional figures, this is the joint lowest rate – along with Sweden – of any country with a population of 500,000 or more.
Transport secretary, Andrew Adonis, said: ‘Every death on the roads is a terrible tragedy, but these figures show that every day last year, one less person died on the roads than in 2007, and that Britain now jointly has the safest roads of any major nation in the world.
‘The 40% fall in deaths and serious injuries since the mid-1990s means more than 19,000 fewer deaths or serious injuries on our roads in a year, meeting a vital road safety target two years early.’
Motorcycle and cycling deaths both dropped by approximately 15% in 2008, to 493 and 115 fatalities, respectively.
In April, the Government set out its new post-2010 road safety strategy, which set targets of a 33% reduction in KSIs by 2020, compared with the baseline average for 2004-08.
Scotland’s KSI rate fell to 42% below the baseline average in 2008, and children KSIs dropped to 65% of the 1994-89 level.
The Scottish Government recently announced the toughest road safety targets in the UK, with ministers demanding a further 40% reduction in fatalities and a 50% cut in serious injuries by 2020 (Surveyor, 18 June 2009).
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