Transport Scotland has recently published details on the number of reported road accident and casualty statistics in Scotland during 2011.
The headline figures show that there were:
- 186 deaths on Scotland's roads in 2011 - 11% fewer than in 2010 (208), 47% fewer than 2001 (348) and the lowest figure since records began;
- 1,875 reported seriously injured in 2011 - 5% fewer than in 2010 (1,968), 45% fewer than 2001 (3,410) and the lowest number since records began;
- 12,770 reported casualties in total in 2011 - 4% fewer than in 2010 (13,338) and a 36% reduction on 2001 (19,911).
The statistics also show that:
- 66% of all road deaths (122 out of 186) in 2011 occurred on non-built up areas (i.e. speed limit greater than 40 mph), though fatality rates per distance travelled are similar to roads in built up areas;
- 53% of people who were seriously injured (1,000 out of 1,875) were involved in accidents on built-up roads;
- Motorways have the lowest accident rates. Fatal accident rates tend to be higher on non built-up roads and rates are highest on B roads. Overall accident rates (including slight injury accidents) tend to be highest for built-up B, C and unclassified roads.
The estimated total cost of all road accidents (including damage only accidents) fell by 6%, from £1,208 million in 2010 to £1,140 million in 2011 (in 2010 prices), this is partly the result of a fall in the average number of casualties per accident from 1.30 in 2010 to 1.28 in 2011.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v1.0.