Deaths of cyclists in 2021 and 2022: FOI release

Information requested

Details on any deaths of cyclists in 2021 and 2022 so far, including:

1. The number of deaths
2. The nature of the incident that resulted in death, providing as much detail as possible
3. The date of the death
4. The location of the incident that resulted in death
5. Any other details available.

Response

1. There were 10 pedal cyclists who were killed in 2021 and 2 so far in 2022.

2. Although Police Scotland, who we receive the data from, have a detailed description of injury road accidents, we do not receive that particular data. However, we do collect accident data for a number of variables as shown in the attached Word document. If there is any further information you would like me to provide please let me know.

3. As far as the date of death is concerned, I can only provide the date the accident happened. It is possible that a casualty could have been seriously injured but subsequently died up to 30 days later.

4. The following table shows the locations of accidents which involved a pedal cyclist who was killed. For convenience I have plotted these accidents on a map showing their location: Fatal pedal cycle accidents in Scotland by transportscotland · MapHub

Accidents involving pedal cyclists killed in accidents 2021 and 2022 (part)
YEAR	Number of casualties	EAST	NORTH	First road class	First road number	Accident date
2021	1	263623	693558	B	822	22/01/2021
2021	1	292810	557181	A	710	11/04/2021
2021	1	289474	664151	B	717	05/06/2021
2021	1	288758	681207	B	902	20/07/2021
2021	1	248968	671504	Unclassified	-	04/07/2021
2021	1	242314	726556	A	85	23/08/2021
2021	1	201539	645583	A	841	19/08/2021
2021	1	237688	641905	B	769	26/08/2021
2021	1	277332	695453	A	84	08/09/2021
2021	1	202020	675822	B	866	04/09/2021
2022	3	215897	680726	A	815	14/06/2022
2022	1	225768	657163	A	760	10/08/2022

The following table shows the contributory factors for accidents which involved a pedal cyclist who was killed.

Factor	2021	2022
Poor or defective road surface	1	0
Slippery road (due to weather)	1	0
Disobeyed Give Way or Stop sign or marking	1	0
Cyclist entering road from pavement	1	0
Poor turn or manoeuvre	1	0
Failed to look properly (Driver/Rider)	2	0
Failed to judge other persons path/speed  (Driver/Rider)	2	0
Too close to cyclist, horse or pedestrian	1	0
Loss of control	1	1
Illness or disability (mental/physic) (Driver/Rider)	1	0
Dazzling sun	2	0
Ped. disability or illness, mental/physical	1	0
Total	15	1

These tables are produced from the version of our road casualty dataset held on 10th November. Our dataset is built from accident and casualty records provided by Police Scotland.

Please note that the figures for 2022 are on the basis of monthly returns received thus far from Police Scotland in 2022, with the most recent returns being received on the 8th November 2022. However, this may be an incomplete picture of casualties up to that date due to a slight lag in records being processed by Police Scotland. These figures are also subject to change due to subsequent corrections and late records.

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