Transport for London (TfL) has already met its year-2020 target to cut the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSIs) on roads by 40% and has now raised the bar even higher.
Mayor Boris Johnson has set the higher target of halving the number of KSIs on London's roads by 2020 - using the government baseline of average casualty rates from the period 2005-2009.
The commitment comes as TfL published the full London road casualty figures for 2014, which show KSIs have been reduced to their lowest level since modern records began in 1980*.
The results marks a record year-on-year achievement for TfL, as this time last year it celebrated cutting the number of KSIs on the capital’s roads by 23% to also reach record levels.
TfL's 2014 report reveals that in total 25,992 collisions resulted in 30,785 casualties and of these, 127 people were fatally injured, 2,040 were seriously injured, and 28,618 were slightly injured.
‘Fatalities fell by 4% (132 to 127), to the second lowest level since modern records began in 1986. KSI casualties fell by a statistically significant 7% in 2014 (2,324 to 2,167) compared to 2013, to the lowest number since records began. Within this, the number of serious injuries also fell by 7% (2,192 to 2,040), also to the lowest level on record,’ the document states.
TfL also announced the number of children killed or seriously injured fell to the lowest level recorded, down 11% on 2013, meaning child road deaths have been reduced from 18 in 2000 to three in 2014.
And despite a huge expansion of people cycling in the capital, the number of cyclist KSIs was down 12%. However slight injuries increased by 15% (24,875 to 28,618) and overall casualties in 2014 increased by 13% compared with 2013.
Mr Johnson, said: `These figures show quite clearly that road safety in the Capital continues to head in the right direction. However, with a growing population and more people on our roads, we'll have to pull out all the stops to ensure that such positive trends continue.
‘We're setting a new target to halve the number of people killed or seriously injured on London's roads by 2020. This will help to guide all of the hard work that TfL and its partners are carrying out to make our roads as safe as possible. It is an ambitious target, but I believe it is one that we can achieve.'
TfL stated there were still areas of concern including the link between Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) and cyclist fatalities. Of the 13 cyclist fatalities in 2014, five involved HGVs or commercial vehicles and all six to date this year have involved this type of vehicle.
‘To help address this, a new campaign will be launched this summer to reiterate the warning for both drivers and cyclists of the risks of blind spots around large vehicles,’ TfL said.
The number of motorcycle fatalities across London also increased with 27 killed compared to 22 in 2013. TfL will address this with a dedicated police Motorcycle Safety Team of expert riders undertaking educational initiatives and carrying out enforcement.
The capital’s transport authority also announced it would carry out research into the trend of increasing slight injuries to road users since 2007, and later this month, would launch ‘a new digital tool that allows people to access the already available open data on road collisions more easily’.
‘An API (Application Programme Interface) will be made available to encourage developers to help identify unusual trends so that road safety action can be targeted even more effectively,’ it added.
*(TfL confirmed to Transport Network it has records going back to 1980, despite the report stating 1986.)
