Reported number of casualties

The 2021 casualty and accident numbers will be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated changes in travel.

Most notably, these changes included the 'second lockdown', which ran from 5 January 2021 to April 2021, and incorporated a legal requirement forbidding anyone from leaving their home except for essential purposes.

Figure 2 shows that in 2021, 139 people were killed in road accidents in Scotland: 2 (1%) less than 2019.

Since 1978, there has been a clear, steady, long-term downward trend. More recent years' figures have fluctuated around a less pronounced downward trend. 2021 had the lowest number of fatalities ever recorded and 2020 was the second-lowest with 141 fatalities.

Figure 2: Total number of reported road fatalities, 1950 – 2021.

Figure 3 shows that there were a total of 5,023 casualties (of all severities) reported in 2021: 24 (0.5%) fewer than in 2020 and the lowest number since annual records began in 1950.

Between circa 1970 and 1990, the figures fluctuated around a general downward trend, with numbers falling from the short-term peak in 1989 & 1990 (of over 27,000). Since 1998, there has been a consistent reduction, with numbers falling below 12,000 in 2013, which was half the level of the early 1990s.

Figure 3: Number of reported road casualties broken down by severity, 1950 – 2021.

Note for Figure 3: Due to changes in the way casualty severity is recorded, serious and slight figures prior to 2004 are not directly comparable with later years.

In 2021, 1,596 people were seriously injured in road accidents. As outlined above, this figure cannot be directly compared to the reported figures prior to 2004. Figure 4 uses adjusted figures to show how many serious casualties there would have been in previous years if they had been recorded using an injury-based reporting system. On the basis of these, the number of people seriously injured in 2021 increased by 4% on 2020. Figure 3 shows that the longer-term trend for fatal and serious casualties has generally been downward since the early 1980s.

There were 3,288 people reported as slightly injured in 2021. Once again, this figure cannot be directly compared to the reported figures for previous years prior to 2004. The number of people slightly injured in road accidents in 2021 decreased by 3% on 2020. Figure 3 shows that the number of slight casualties has shown a clear downward trend since the mid-1990s.

Figure 4: Number of serious road casualties, adjusted 2004 – 2021.

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