New figures show 4% increase in road fatalities from 2015 to 2016
According to newly released figures, road deaths in the UK have hit a five-year high – 1,792 people were on killed on Britain’s roads last year, which equates to a 4% increase compared to figures from 2015.
The Department for Transport has revealed that this represents the highest number on record since 2011.
A total of 24,101 people were also reported as being seriously injured as a result of road accidents in 2016, which is a rise of 9% compared to the previous year and the Department for Transport states that a portion of the increase is down to “changes in systems for severity reporting by some police forces.”
Last year saw an increase of 8% of deaths involving cars which totaled 816, whilst fatalities involving pedestrians saw the biggest increase during the same period, jumping up by 10%.
Road deaths in the UK hit five-year high © Copyright Adrian Cable and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
In the UK last year, 448 pedestrians were killed, whilst 319 motorcyclists and 102 cyclists were also involved in fatal accidents.
According to the Department for Transport, the level of traffic between 2015 and 2016 increased by 2.2%, whereas there’s been a 44% drop in fatalities since 2006.
Motoring organisations in the UK believe that more needs to be done to improve road safety on Britain’s roads following the release of these worrisome new figures.
“The report clearly states that ‘there is unlikely to be as large a fall in casualties as there were earlier on without further significant interventions’. This is surely an admission that more could and should be done to save lives,” said road safety spokesman for the RAC, Pete Williams.
Neil Worth, GEM’s road safety officer said: “We will no doubt hear a Minister explaining that Britain has some of the safest roads in the world. But the truth is that our roads are considerably less safe than they were six years ago, and that is very worrying.”
Mr Worth also added that despite technological advancements to vehicles and systems, car occupant fatalities have increased by 8%, whilst pedestrian deaths have risen by 10% and fatalities on roads where there’s a 20mph speed limit have risen from 14 in 2015 to 30 last year.
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