Reported Road Casualties Great Britain 2009: Annual Report, (RRCGB) provides detailed statistics about the circumstances of personal injury road accidents, including the types of vehicles involved and the consequent casualties. These statistics are used to inform public debate and support policy on road safety. Most of the statistics in this report are based on accidents reported to the police (STATS19 system). However, in addition to the detailed tables there are seven articles containing further analysis on specific road safety topics, covering: an overview and trends in the police data; valuation of road accidents and casualties; drinking and driving; contributory factors in accidents; survey data on road traffic accidents, including an overall estimate of total casualties; hospital admissions data on road casualties; road safety research Comparisons with death registrations show that very few fatal accidents do not become known to the police. However, it has long been known that a considerable proportion of non-fatal injury accidents are not reported to the police. The best current estimate is that the total number of road casualties in Great Britain each year, including those not reported to police, is within the range 610 thousand to 780 thousand with a central estimate of 700 thousand. Article 5 in this publication discusses how the estimates have been derived, and their limitations. The police data are therefore not a complete record of all injury accidents and this should be borne in mind when using and analysing the data included in this publication. Police data on road accidents remain the most detailed, complete and reliable single source of information on road casualties covering the whole of Great Britain. The authors also continue to look at other sources of data on road accidents and casualties, in particular both hospital and survey data are providing further useful evidence. (Author/publisher)
Abstract