The number of people killed on Britain’s roads fell by 2% last year, following a 4% rise in 2014, new Government statistics show.
In 2015, 1,732 people were killed in road accidents in Great Britain, with 22,137 seriously injured.
This compares to 1,775 road deaths in 2014 and 1,713 in 2013, which remains the lowest number on record.
The number of people seriously injured on the roads also fell over the past year, but remains higher than 2013.
The number of cyclists killed fell by 12% to 100 while the number of motorcyclists losing their lives rose by 8% to 365.
Figures published separately by Transport for London (TfL) showed a 7% rise in road fatalities in the capital, from 127 to 136. However, a fall from 2,040 to 1,956 in the number of people seriously injured meant that the overall total of people killed or seriously injured fell by 3% over the year.
TfL said cyclist safety ‘improved significantly’, with fatal and serious injuries involving cyclists falling by 10%, and nine fatalities compared to 13 in 2014.
It also pointed to a ‘concerning increase’ in the number of motorcyclist fatalities and serious injuries, with nine more riders dying in road collisions compared to the previous year.
In Scotland, road fatalities fell by nearly one fifth over the year with 162 people killed in 2015, 41 fewer than in 2014. The number of people seriously injured decreased by 6% to 1,597 while the total number of casualties fell by 3%, from 11,307 to 10,950, the lowest number since records began.
Scottish transport Minister Humza Yousaf said: ‘We remain on track to achieve significant casualty reductions towards our 2020 targets, as well as realising our vision where no one is killed on Scotland’s roads and the injury rate is much reduced.’
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