An analysis of deaths and injuries from road traffic incidents has identified West Yorkshire and the West Midlands as the counties with highest risk of injury and the Isle of Wight and parts of Wales as the safest (Health and Place 2007 doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2007.10.001). Between 1995 and 2000 there were 15 797 deaths, 191 870 serious injuries that needed hospital treatment, and 1 282 563 minor injuries from road traffic incidents in England and Wales. For the NHS funded study researchers looked at geographical variations in mortality and morbidity throughout England and Wales. The results were presented in two ways for each county. The first, the null model, was the total number of deaths and injuries. The second took into account differences in population, vehicle movements, car ownership, road length and curvature, and other factors, which made some differences to the ranking orders. The results for the null model show that for deaths West Yorkshire was top, followed by West Midlands, South Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire. The counties with the lowest mortality were the Isle of Wight, West Glamorgan, and Gwynedd. For serious injuries, the West Midlands was ranked in first place followed by West Yorkshire, Greater London, and South Yorkshire. The lowest risk was in West Glamorgan followed by neighbouring Mid Glamorgan. The authors say that fatalities from road traffic incidents in Britain have averaged more than 3000 a year since 1998. Beyond 2010: A Holistic Approach to Road Safety in Great Britain, can be seen at www.pacts.org.uk. (Author/publisher)
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