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 2004 compared with 2003: • There were 280,840 reported casualties on roads in Great Britain in 2004, 3 per cent less than in 2003. 3,221 people were killed, 8 per cent less than in 2003. 31,130 were seriously injured (down 8 per cent on 2003) and 246,489 were slightly injured (down 3 per cent on 2003). • There were 207,410 road accidents involving personal injury in 2004, 3 per cent less than in 2003. Of these, 29,726 involved death or serious injury. • Child casualties fell by 3 per cent. There were 166 child fatalities, 3 per cent fewer than in 2003. The number of children killed or seriously injured in 2004 was 3,905 down 5 per cent on 2003. Of those, 2,339 were pedestrians, 2 per cent down on 2003. • Car user casualties decreased by 2 per cent on the 2003 level to 183,858 although fatalities were 6 per cent lower. • Pedestrian casualties were 34,881 in 2004, 4 per cent less than 2003. Pedestrian deaths were 13 per cent less than 2003 at 671 and serious injuries fell by 5 per cent to 6,807. • Pedal cyclist casualties were 2 per cent lower than in 2003 at 16,648. There were 2,174 seriously injured casualties, 5 per cent less than in 2003. The number of pedal cyclists killed went up by 18 per cent from 114 to 134. • Two wheeled motor vehicles user casualties were lower than the 2003 level at 25,641 in 2004. The number killed fell 16 per cent to 585 and the number of seriously injured also fell by 13 per cent to 6,063. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting