Information on the vehicles and casualties involved in road accidents helps those concerned with road and vehicle safety to target their efforts effectively. Some limited information on the types of vehicle involved in injury road accidents is obtained directly from the STATS19 accident report form. This information, recorded as variable 2.5, classifies vehicles into 15 body type groupings. On the form, since 1989, variable 2.15 records the prefix or suffix letter of the vehicle registration mark (VRM), giving a fairly reliable indication of vehicle age. Some basic information about goods vehicles is also reported. The vehicle registration mark has been used to obtain other information from the Driver Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) on make, model, body type, tax class, car colour, fuel type, engine capacity and year of manufacture. This article presents information on: (a) injury accident involvement rates by age, size and ownership of cars; (b) stolen vehicles in accidents; (c) colour of cars in accidents; and (d) accidents by vehicle type and tax class.
Abstract