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Casualty reduction - targets and progress

The Road Safety Strategy includes three targets:

By 2010 we want to achieve, compared to the average for 1994-98:

  • a 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents;
  • a 50% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured; and
  • a 10% reduction in the slight casualty rate, expressed as the number of people slightly injured per 100 million vehicle kilometres.

Public Service Agreement (PSA) Targets

Following SR 2000 the first two targets were adopted as PSA targets for which the Department for Transport is accountable to the Treasury.

Before SR2002 there was wide recognition of the higher incidence of road casualties amongst people from disadvantaged communities. As a result our PSA target is now;

  • To reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured in Great Britain in road accidents by 40% and the number of children killed or seriously injured by 50% by 2010 compared with the average for 1994-98, tackling the significantly higher incidence in disadvantaged communities

In 2003, 3508 people were killed in road accidents and 33,707 were seriously injured. This is 22% below baseline - almost half way to the 40% target set for 2010. In 2003, 171 children were killed in road accidents and 3,929 were seriously injured. This is 40% below baseline - over three quarters of the way to the 50% target set for 2010.

For slight injuries the reported rate in 2003 was 17% below the baseline but it is possible that this is partly due to a drop in reporting of less serious accidents and casualties.

For "dealing with disadvantage", we want to see a faster rate of reduction in the total number of road casualties in the 88 local council areas that are eligible to receive Neighbourhood Renewal Funding (NRF) than for England as a whole. Total casualties in the 88 NRF areas in 2002 were 6.4% below the average for 1999-2001 compared with a 5.1% drop for England as a whole.