Good news from Transport Scotland - the number of people who were injured on the roads in Scotland fell to a record low in 2011. The new statistics reveal that road casualties are 4% lower than in 2010, and include an 11% drop in fatalities over the same period.
But, while there were 575 fewer reported road casualties than in 2010, this still means that there were a whopping 12,763 people hurt on the roads in 2011. More specifically, there were 186 fatalities (22 fewer than in 2010), 1,873 people were seriously injured (down 5%), 10,704 people were slightly injured (down 4%), and there were 1,315 child casualties (5% fewer than in 2010).
There were fewer male road casualties in 2011 – down 3% to 7,293 - with fatalities falling by 5% to 139. In total, men and boys account for 57% of all reported road fatalities.
The number of women and girls hurt on Scotland’s roads also fell last year - by 6% to 5,463. Forty-seven of these victims died as a result of their injuries – a drop of 24%.
Car users accounted for the majority of the casualties (7,768) and fatalities (89), while there was a 2% increase in the number of pedestrians injured on the roads, and a jump of 6% in the number of injured cyclists.
Motorcyclists accounted for 807 of the casualties, including 33 fatalities.
According to Minister for Transport Keith Brown, while the figures are encouraging, more must be done to further reduce the numbers of road casualties.
I agree. Working with my friends at Thompsons Scotland, I am only too aware of the impact that road accidents have on victims and their families. While great progress has been made in reducing the numbers of those affected, even one casualty is a casualty too many. Let’s keep working to make Scotland’s roads as safe as they possibly can be!