The statistics refer to personal injury accidents on public roads (including footways) which became known to the police. Figures for deaths refer to persons who sustained injuries which caused death less than 30 days after the accident. This is the usual international definition and differs from that used in other contexts by the Registrars General, whose published statistics cover all deaths on public roads, generally by date of registration. Research conducted in the 1990s has shown that many non-fatal injury accidents are not reported to the police. In addition some casualties reported to the police are not recorded and the severity of injury tends to be underestimated. The combined effect of under-reporting, under-recording and misclassification suggests that there may be 2.76 times as many seriously injured casualties than are recorded in the national casualty figures and 1.70 slight casualties, according to TRL Report 173 Comparison of hospital and police casualty data: a national study by H F Simpson. The Department is undertaking further research to investigate whether the level of under-reporting has changed. Casualties 2005 compared with 2004: • There were 271,017 reported casualties on roads in Great Britain in 2005, 3 per cent less than in 2004. 3,201 people were killed, 1 per cent less than in 2004. 28,954 were seriously injured (down 7 per cent on 2004) and 238,862 were slightly injured (down 3 per cent on 2004). • There were 198,735 road accidents involving personal injury in 2005, 4 per cent less than in 2004. Of these, 27,942 involved death or serious injury. • Child casualties fell by 9 per cent. There were 141 child fatalities, 15 per cent fewer than in 2004. The number of children killed or seriously injured in 2005 was 3,472 down 11 per cent on 2004. Of those, 2,134 were pedestrians, 9 per cent down on 2004. • Car user casualties decreased by 3 per cent on the 2004 figure to 178,302 although fatalities remained at the same level. • Pedestrian casualties were 33,281 in 2005, 5 per cent less than 2004. Pedestrian deaths were unchanged compared to 2004 at 671 and serious injuries fell by 5 per cent to 6,458. • Pedal cyclist casualties were 1 per cent lower than in 2004 at 16,561. There were 2,212 seriously injured casualties, 2 per cent higher than in 2004. The number of pedal cyclists killed went up by 10 per cent from 134 to 148. • Two wheeled motor vehicles user casualties were lower than the 2004 level at 24,824 in 2005. The number killed fell 3 per cent to 569 and the number of seriously injured also fell by 2 per cent to 5,939. (Author/publisher)
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