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2. Background
2.1 This bulletin presents provisional statistics of injury road accidents ( i.e. road accidents in which one or more people were killed or injured) in Scotland in 2006. These figures were extracted from the Scottish Executive's road accidents statistical database on 11 May 2007. The final totals for 2006, which will appear in "Road Accidents Scotland 2006", may differ slightly due to ( e.g.) late returns and amendments. For similar reasons, the figures given here for 2005 and earlier years may differ slightly from those published previously.
Killed - from 1950
Killed & Seriously injured casualties and Seriously injured casualties - from 1950
2.2 The statistics are the numbers of injury road accidents which were reported by the police. Each accident is classified according to the severity of its most seriously injured casualty. Very few, if any, fatal accidents do not become known to the police. However, there could be many non-fatal injury accidents which are not reported by the public to the police, and are therefore not counted in these statistics because the police can only report accidents of which they are aware.
2.3 The casualty reduction targets for 2010 are described in section 10.4. Progress towards them is covered in section 5, tables 3 to 5 and the charts on page 6. The figures for 2006 are compared with the annual averages for 1994-98 because that is the "baseline" period for the targets. In the charts on page 6, the thick black lines show the figures recorded so far, the horizontal dashed lines show the baseline averages, and the dotted lines going downwards indicate how the figures would have to fall in order to reach the targets for 2010 by means of a constant annual percentage reduction.
2.4 "Key 2006 Road Accident Statistics" is one of a series of Transport Statistics publications, most of which focus on particular aspects of transport and cover them in depth. The individual publications that comprise the series are described in the section on "Transport Statistics publications" towards the end of this bulletin. A comprehensive statistical picture of transport activity is given in the compendium "Scottish Transport Statistics" volume, the "Main Transport Trends" bulletin and the "Key Transport Statistics" card. These provide figures on a wide range of topics, including: vehicles licensed, traffic volumes and road accidents; the numbers of passengers on bus, rail, air and ferry services; travel to work, travel to school, household car availability and other key findings from the Scottish Household Survey and the National Travel Survey; and the amount of freight carried by road, rail and water. "Key 2006 Road Accident Statistics" provides more detailed figures on road accident and casualty numbers. It is followed in the Autumn by "Road Accidents Scotland", a volume which includes extensive analyses of the numbers of accidents, vehicles and casualties.
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