1. Main Points
Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2018
1. Main Points
1.1 There were a total of 8,402 road casualties reported in 2018 this is 1,031 or 11% fewer than 2017 and the lowest number of casualties since annual records began in 1950. Of which there were:
- 160 fatalities : 15 (or 10%) more than 2017
- 1,581 seriously injured: 12 (or 1%) fewer than 2017
- 6,661 slightly injured: 1,034 (or 13%) fewer than 2017 [Table 2].
1.2 By mode, in 2018 there were:
- 5,069 car user casualties (638, 11% less than 2017); including 75 fatalities (11 more than 2017)
- 1,250 pedestrian casualties (113, 8% less than 2017); including 33 fatalities (5 fewer than 2017)
- 640 motorcycle casualties (20, 3% more than 2017); including 33 fatalities (4 more than 2017)
- 638 pedal cycle casualties (12% less than 2017); including 6 fatalities (1 more than 2017)
- 230 bus and coach user casualties (127, 36% less than 2017) [Table 3].
These figures take no account of changes in modal choice so changes could be because more or fewer people are travelling by a particular mode.
1.3 In 2018 there were 756 child casualties reported, 144 (16%) fewer than in 2017. This included 3 fatalities, 1 more than last year [Table 4]. Conclusions on trend cannot be made from a single year’s data as the numbers are small and fluctuate from year to year. Trends using a three year average are included in table 7.
1.4 In 2018 male fatalities rose by 13 (14%) to 109. Female fatalities rose by 2 (4%) to 51. Thirteen per cent (1,101) of all casualties were aged 16–22, a fall of 21% on 2017, of which 614 were male and 487 were female. Casualties aged under 5 fell by 5%, from 136 to 129 between 2017 and 2018 [Table 12].
1.5 Scotland’s road safety framework to 2020 contains 5 national targets for casualty reductions by 2020 . Scotland’s performance is currently on track to meet only 3 of the 5 targets, although in each case there has been a significant improvement since the 2004-2008 baseline.
- 160 people were killed in 2018, a reduction of 45% since the baseline (performance currently exceeding the 2020 target of a 40% reduction) [Table 5]
- 1,581 people were seriously injured in 2018, a reduction of 39% since the baseline (performance not currently on track to meet the 2020 target of a 55% reduction) [Table 6]
- On average, there were 6 children killed each year between 2016 and 2018: a reduction of 63% since the baseline (performance currently exceeding the 2020 target of a 50% reduction) [Table 7]
- There were 142 children seriously injured in 2018: a reduction of 56% since the baseline (performance not currently on track to meet the 2020 target of a 65% reduction) [Table 8]
- The 2018 slight casualty rate was 13.84 casualties per 100 million vehicle kilometres, a reduction of 57% since the baseline (performance currently exceeding the 2020 target of a 10% reduction) [Table 9].