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4. Reported numbers of Casualties by Severity ( Table 2)
4.1 Table 2 shows that the provisional total number of people killed in road accidents in Scotland in 2006 was 314. This was 28 (10%) higher than the figure for 2005, but was still the fifth lowest since current records began more than 50 years ago. With a few exceptions, there has been a fall in each year since 1978, and for most of that period the figures show a clear, steady long-term downward trend. Recent years' numbers appear to have been fluctuating around a less pronounced downward trend.
4.2 There was a provisional total of 2,594 people recorded as seriously injured in road accidents in 2006: 67 (3%) fewer than in 2005. This is the lowest figure since records of the numbers of serious injuries began in 1950. Since the early 1980s, the long-term trend has generally been downward, and there have been falls in every year since 1998.
4.3 The provisional figure of 14,169 people reported as slightly injured in 2006 is 759 (5%) fewer than in 2005. This is the lowest number recorded since 1954. Between 1970 and the late 1990s, the figures fluctuated in a range which was broadly 17,000 to 21,000. However, the falls in the figures in every year since 1997 suggest a clear downward trend.
4.4 The provisional total number of casualties (of all severities) reported in 2006 was 17,077 which was 798 (4%) lower than in 2005. This represented the lowest number of casualties since 1952. Between about 1970 and 1990, the figures appeared to fluctuate greatly around a general downward trend. Subsequently, the reported total number of casualties has fallen from the level of the most recent "short-term" peak (which was over 27,000 in both 1989 and 1990): the figure for 2001 was the first for almost 50 years to be below 20,000, and there has been a fall in every year since then.
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