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5.2 Road deaths : international comparison 1997 (see Tables E and F)
This section compares Scotland’s road death rates in 1997 with the fatality rates of some countries in Western Europe and some developed countries world-wide. The comparisons involve a total of 28 countries (including Scotland). The fatality rates were calculated on a "per capita" basis (the statistics given are rates per million population), and the countries were then listed in order of their fatality rates in Table E sections (a), (b) and (c). Section (d) of the table ranks countries by a set of car user fatality rates which were calculated on a "per motor vehicle" basis (the statistics given are rates per million motor vehicles).
In 1997, Scotland’s overall road death rate of 74 per million population was the fifth lowest of the 28countries surveyed, and was only about 63% of the EC average (which was 117 per million population). Only Iceland, Sweden, England & Wales and Norway had fatality rates which were lower than Scotland’s. However, Scotland’s overall road safety position does not appear as good when the fatality rates of pedestrians and car users are considered separately.
Looking first at pedestrian fatality rates, in 1997, Scotland’s rate was 17 per million population, the same as the rate for England and Wales and slightly better than the EC average of 18. Scotland ranked fourteenth of the 28 countries surveyed (but was not far behind five other countries which had fatality rates of 16 or 17 per million population).
When the car user fatality rate is calculated on a per capita basis, Scotland does have a low car user fatality rate (the seventh lowest). However, it may be argued that the car user fatality rate should be calculated on "per motor vehicle" basis, in order to try to approximate better the differing levels of car use in different countries, and hence reflect differences between countries in car drivers’ "exposure to risk". (Rates based on the amount of car traffic in each country would be even better, but the data required to calculate them are not available for some countries.) When car user fatality rates are calculated on a "per motor vehicle" basis, Scotland’s car user fatality rate of 107 per million motor vehicles was only the eleventh best out of the 28 countries surveyed. The rate for England and Wales was 63 per million motor vehicles, and the EC average was 121. Because Scotland has the fifth lowest "motor vehicles per capita" rate, its ranking in terms of the fatality rate per motor vehicle is worse than its ranking in terms of the fatality rate per head of population.
The fatality rates per head of population are shown, for each of four broad age-groups, in Table F. In each case, Scotland has one of the lowest rates per capita. For the child population (defined, for these statistics, as those aged 0-14 years), Scotland’s rate (23 per million population) is the sixth lowest among the countries surveyed. The Scottish rate is the ninth lowest for those aged 15-24, the seventh lowest for those aged 25-64 and the third lowest for those aged 65+.
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