Scotland’s transport minister has pledged to go further to reduce road casualties after a large fall in the number of road deaths in the country last year and an all-time low number of total casualties.
Final statistics for 2015 confirm that 168 people were killed in reported road accidents in Scotland in 2015, compared with a revised figure of 203 road deaths in 2014. This was a fall of 17%, reversing an 18% increase in fatalities in 2014.
Scottish transport minister Humza Yousaf
The total number of road casualties reported to the police in Scotland in 2015 fell by 3% from 11,307 to 10,968, the lowest number since records began. The number of people seriously injured also decreased by 6% to 1,596.
Scottish transport minister Humza Yousaf said: ‘Scotland’s road safety framework has an ultimate vision of zero fatalities on our roads and one life lost on our roads is one too many. These latest figures confirm the downward trend in road casualties, that key milestone reductions are being met and we are on track to continue to achieve casualty reductions towards our 2020 targets.
‘This progress is to be welcomed but we want to go even further, building on the strong partnership approach which identified three key priority focus areas for activity through to 2020 – speed, age and vulnerable road users.
‘Partners are progressing work to address outcomes in these areas that will help deliver us achieve our 2020 casualty reduction targets. In particular, with certain road users such as cyclists, we welcome the reduction in fatalities from 2014 but continued effort is needed to tackle serious injuries.’
The official figures also show that in 2015 there were 972 child casualties in reported road accidents, a decrease of 6% since 2014. This included four fatalities, 3 fewer than 2014, and 139 children who were seriously injured, down from 172 in 2014.
There were three fewer pedal cyclists killed than in 2014 and 15 fewer pedestrian fatalities. There were also three fewer motorcyclists killed and 19 fewer car user fatalities.
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