Scottish Government

Reduce deaths on Scotland's roads

DESCRIPTION:

The number of people killed in injury road accidents reported to the police.

Road accidents in which people are killed or injured result in high social and economic costs including a devastating impact on families, human pain and suffering, damage to vehicles and property, loss of productivity, demands on the emergency services as well as medical and insurance costs.

SOURCE:

'Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland', published annually by Transport Scotland:

http://www.transportscotland.gov.uk/analysis/statistics/publications/key-reported-road-casualty-statistics-previous-editions

This is a National Statistics publication.

The source publication presents detailed statistics about the circumstances of personal injury road accidents in Scotland that were reported to the police. Police forces send the data to Transport Scotland using the Stats 19 form. Each accident is classified according to the severity of the injury to the most seriously injured person involved in the accident. This indicator measures casualties and not accidents.

DEFINITIONS:

Accident: The statistical returns cover all accidents in which a vehicle is involved that occur on roads (including footways) and result in death or personal injury, if they become known to the police. It should be noted that the vehicle need not be moving, and need not be in collision - for example, the returns include accidents involving people alighting from buses.

BASELINE AND PAST TRENDS:

The baseline uses an average over five years, from 2004 to 2008 as this is the latest data point available before the publication of the Scottish Government Road Safety Framework published in 2009, that set out Scotland specific road safety targets to 2020. The baseline figure is 292 people.

The number of people killed on Scotland's roads

CRITERIA FOR RECENT CHANGE ARROW:

Simple count - a reduction in the number of people killed on Scotland's roads suggests the position is improving, with any increase resulting in a worsening arrow. If the number of people killed in road accidents remains the same this will result in a maintaining arrow.

For information on general methodological approach, please click here.

FUTURE ISSUES OR REVIEWS:

At times, there may be a need to revise past data to reflect new information provided by the police.

ASSOCIATED TARGET:

Target: To reduce the number of people in injury road accidents by 40% by 2020, assessed against the 2004/08 average. The 2004/08 average was 292 people therefore the target is equivalent of 175 or less people killed on Scottish roads in 2020.

For more information on the target:

Scotland's Road Safety Framework

End point: 2020 data point