Number of serious injuries on UK roads highest in a decade

New reports show that Britain’s roads have the third fewest deaths in Europe, but in 2018 the number of “serious” road injuries reached the highest point in over a decade.

Statistics released by the Department for Transport (DfT) last month show a drop of over 10,000 “slight” injuries for the second year running, bringing the total road injuries down to 160,597 for the year; the lowest since records began in 1979.

The concern will be that in 2018 there were 25,511 “serious” injuries reported on Britain’s roads; a rise of almost 700 on the previous year and the first time the number has topped 25,000 since 2008.

A serious injury is defined as: “Fractures, concussions, internal lesions, crushing, severe cuts and lacerations, severe general shock requiring medical treatment and any other serious lesions entailing detention in hospital.”

Although the UK is the European nation with the third fewest road deaths per million inhabitants, behind Norway and Sweden, the DfT may still come under scrutiny for the number of fatalities. Between 2000 and 2012 the number of road fatalities halved, but has now remained between 1700-1800 annually for seven years running.

The DfT’s 2019 Road Safety Action Plan includes 74 actions to improve road safety. Transport secretary Chris Grayling said: “The UK has some of the safest roads in the world, but we are not complacent and continue to look at how we can make them safer.”

It starts with the simplest thing: wearing seat belts. In 2017 more than a quarter of Britain’s road fatalities were not wearing a seat belt. Technological advancements are also on the horizon, as the DfT are investigating the feasibility of “alcolocks”: “devices installed in vehicles that measure the alcohol in a driver's breath and can prohibit the ignition activation if the alcohol level is too high”.

The safety of young people on the roads is a top priority, as one in five road fatalities in 2018 were people 25 and under. Despite 16-25 year olds accounting for less than 10 per cent of Britain’s drivers, they made up more than 20 per cent of the seriously injured in 2018.

In their report, the DfT say: “We will explore how we can ensure that new drivers acquire the competencies to be safe and responsible from the outset.” This was the focus of the 2018 THINK! campaign ‘Mates Matter’, which reportedly “saw the most significant attitudinal shift in the unacceptability of drink driving among young men in over a decade” and “used the power of friendships to turn peers from a negative facilitator into a positive influencer”.

Further suggestions include instigating a Graduated Driver Licensing scheme, which would limit factors such as the time of day a new driver can use their car and the number of passengers they can carry.