Road Risk Strategy - Cutting road deaths and injuries
The road safety charity Brake has asked the Government to urgently introduce a strategy, with challenging targets, for cutting road deaths and injuries after new figures revealed the economic cost of casualties to be £33 billion last year, almost twice as much as previous estimates. Stephen Thomas of Croner’s Safety Technical Team looks at the overall picture of driving in Great Britain and discusses issues around occupational driving.
The overall picture
The Government’s latest annual report on the number
of road deaths and injuries in Britain in 2009 indicates
that:
- 2222 people were killed
- an estimated 80,000 people were seriously injured
- an estimated 620,000 people were slightly injured.
For the first time, the Government has estimated the total cost of road deaths and injuries to the economy, taking into account under-reporting of injuries by police and using other data sources. This new estimate has put the total cost to the economy of all road crashes in Great Britain in 2009 at £33 billion, with each road death costing £1.6 million.