Rising Road Deaths in the UK-February 2017

There had been a welcome improvement in the annual casualties of car drivers and passengers up to 2010, from over 3,000 a year to less than 2,000 a year. Deaths of cyclists, though much less common, had been relatively stable over this period.

But cycle deaths in adults are static or rising: Here are the latest trends in quarterly figures showing a rise in numbers killed or seriously injured in all road users.

* Serious injury: An injury for which a person is detained in hsoptial as an in-patient: fracture, concussion, internal injuries, crushings, burns, excluding friction burns, severe cuts, severe general shock requiring medical treatment and injuries causing death 30 or more days after the accident.

Here are the figures:

The latest report cites the CRASH system which may have resulted in police recording SI more frequently but even so more people are dying on the roads:

A 'non-significant rise' despite these cautious bullet points, it's hard to ignore the rising numbers of road deaths. The UK will likely soon return to 2,000 avoidable deaths per year.

Hidden among the figures and tables is a 22% rise in child deaths on the road, highlighted in an RAC news report:

International comparison are of limited value but the reduction of Dutch mortality among cyclists to 162 in 2010, despite much higher cycle use than in the UK is striking.