High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Road Accident Casualties
In 2008, 270 people were killed on Scotland's roads, 2,568 were recorded as seriously injured and 12,741 suffered "slight" injury. Most of the casualties were travelling in cars (9,667, 153 of whom died), 2,590 were pedestrians (60 were killed), 1,041 were motorcyclists (34 died) and 726 were pedal cyclists (9 died). There were 1,696 child casualties, of whom 20 died.
There are three national casualty reduction targets for 2010, all based on the 1994-98 "baseline" annual averages - reductions of:
- 40 per cent in the numbers killed or seriously injured,
- 50 per cent in the number of children killed or seriously injured,
- 10 per cent in the slight casualty rate.
The relevant figures for 2008 for the three targets were, respectively, 45 per cent, 67 per cent and 35 per cent below the "baseline" levels - all larger reductions than the targets.
Comparing the figures for 2008 with the annual averages for the 1994-98 "baseline" period, the number of people killed fell by 29 per cent, seriously injured casualties dropped by 42 per cent, slight casualties reduced in number by 27 per cent and there was a 30 per cent fall in overall casualty numbers. Car casualties fell by 28 per cent, pedestrian casualties by 41 per cent and pedal cyclist casualties by 43 per cent. However, motorcyclist casualties increased by 11 per cent. The number of children killed fell from 30 to 20, and the total number of child casualties fell by 56 per cent.
Over the longer term, casualty numbers have fallen considerably from the peak levels of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The numbers of people killed or injured in 2008 were at the second lowest level that has been recorded, since current records began over 50 years ago.
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Source: Key 2008 Road Casualty Statistics
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