In 2011 , 24,443 personal injury collisions occurring on the public highway were reported to the Metropolitan and City of London police services within the Greater London area. This represents a slight increase of 1 % over the 24,105 collisions recorded in 2010. These resulted in 29,257 casualties, an increase of 1 % compared to the 28,889 recorded in 2010. The previous casualty reduction targets had an end date of 2010. By this date, the number of people killed or seriously injured in road traffic collisions in the Capital had fallen by 57 per cent, the number of reported slight injuries had fallen by 33 per cent, and the number of children killed or seriously injured had fallen by 73 per cent compared to the 1994-8 baseline. This meant that 3,798 fewer people were killed or seriously injured on London’s roads and 12,994 fewer slight injuries were reported in 2010 compared to the baseline years. Casualty reduction targets for cyclists and powered two-wheeler users, however, were not met. This may be largely reflected in the increased use of these modes. While progress continued to be made in reducing killed and seriously injured casualties in 2011, 2,805 people were still killed or seriously injured on London’s roads. Pedal cycle and pedestrian killed and seriously injured casualties increased by 22 per cent and 7 per cent respectively between 2010 and 2011. This is why the Mayor’s revised Road Safety Action Plan prioritises action to address the issues facing London’s vulnerable road users. The long-term trend in total casualties over the last four decades has been downward, with total casualties in Greater London more than halving from the 1970s to the 2000s (see figure 1.1 0). The rate of decline has levelled more recently and some increases have been seen in 2010 and 2011(see figures in section 1). Many factors may influence these increases such as changes in transport choices, behaviour and the effects of the weather. During 2011, casualties in Greater London accounted for around 14% of those in Great Britain as a whole. KSI casualties represented 11% (source ‘Reported Road Casualties Great Britain: Main Results 2011’ Department for Transport 2012). The collisions and casualties occurred against a background in which total road traffic in London fell by 0.9% between 2009 and 2010 and the volume of traffic on London’s roads over the last decade has declined by 6% overall. Whilst the trend towards falling traffic levels has been established in London for almost a decade, 2008 saw the first falls in traffic volume at the national level since the mid 1970s. This was repeated in both 2009 and 2010, with UK traffic in 2010 being 3.3 per cent lower than the high point of 2007. (source Travel in London Report 4 Transport for London, 2011). The cost to the community of collisions in Greater London for the year 2011 is estimated to be around £2.3 billion at 2010 prices (see Section 5: Collision costs). Resources will therefore continue to need to be invested in a targeted way in future road safety programmes. This will enable activity to target those audiences and locations suffering from high levels of road casualties. Developing a London-wide Road Safety Action Plan is one of the proposals in the Mayor’s Transport Strategy. In July 2012 Transport for London issued its draft Road Safety Plan for consultation. The Plan proposes to achieve a 40 per cent reduction in the number of people killed and seriously injured measured against a 2005-9 average baseline. More details can be found on TfL’s Road Safety website; www.tfl.gov.uk/roadsafety. This report provides background information on personal injury road traffic collisions on the public highway occurring within the Greater London area and reported to the police. This information will assist in policy formulation for road safety, traffic and transport planning studies, the production of road safety plans, and for reference purposes. This is the 25th annual report published by Transport for London and its predecessor organisations. Further analysis of London’s collision and casualty data can be found in the various publications produced by TfL and are available via our website; http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadsafety. The tables and graphical illustrations are those most commonly requested and not an exhaustive list of possible analyses of the data. Additional tabulations of collision, casualty and vehicle factors associated with personal injury collisions may be available on request (see appendices). Appendix 6.1 provides information about changes in the coverage and reporting of collisions that it is important to be aware of when considering very long term trends. (Author/publisher)
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