Scottish National Accident Rate: FOI release

Information requested

The report at this url references a "Scottish National Accident Rate" figure:
http://a9road.info/uploads/publications/A9_Perth_to_Thurso_review_Aug_2013.pdf

1. Please could you provide me with the latest Scottish National Accident Rate (SNAR) figure that is known by Transport Scotland?

The SNAR figure in the report is described as: "Scottish national accident rate for dual and single carriageway from the SERIS accident rate calculator per 100 million-vehicle kilometre (100mvk) is 7.7 and 18.7 respectively, for the five year period between 2007 and 2011."

If there is no more up-to-date directly comparable figure held by Transport Scotland, please supply the closest known equivalent figure - e.g. any figure that calculates a typical accident rate for dual and single carriageway roads in Scotland.

2. Please could you also supply me with any comparable up-to-date figures specifically for the A9, ideally as provided in the above report?
Table 4 on page 34 of the linked report provides data on the "Accident Rate per million-vehicle kilometre on road sections/types A9 Perth and Thurso."

If Transport Scotland holds comparable, but more up-to-date figures, please could you supply them?

If there is no directly comparable update available to the figures for the A9, please supply the most recent figures/analysis by Transport Scotland that provides similar information on the accident rates of different sections of the A9.

If possible, please supply the requested data in a machine readable format, such as MS Excel or CSV. Please avoid supplying the requested data in pdf format files.

Response

To aid with my response I have retained the numbering from your request above:

1. The report referred to in your request ‘A9 Perth to Thurso Route Review Accident Analysis (Final)’ dated August 2013 was a report specifically prepared as part of the work of the A9 Safety Group. It was undertaken to carry out analysis of injury accidents, between 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2011 for the A9 between Perth and Scrabster, Thurso to define key issues and themes. This report has not been updated.

Transport Scotland however assesses the safety performance of the trunk road network on an annual basis by screening all locations where three or more personal-injury accidents have occurred in a three year period.In addition, accident patterns and rates in the form of Route Accident Reduction Plans (RARP) are also considered.This ensures that full consideration is given to accidents that may be spread along a corridor. Further investigations are then carried out and, where appropriate, mitigation measures are prioritised for delivery.

As noted above, accident rates are calculated as part of our annual road safety assessment process. They are based on a 3 year period, rather than the 5 year period reported in the A9 Perth to Thurso Route Review Accident Analysis. The accident rate in the annual road safety assessment process also differs to that in the A9 report in that it is reported as personal injury accidents per million-vehicle kilometres rather than 100 million-vehicle kilometres.

The national accident rate for the trunk road network for the period 2019-2021 (inclusive) for single carriageways is 0.092 accidents per million-vehicle kilometres and for dual carriageways is 0.038 accidents per million-vehicle kilometres.

2. The accident rates for sections of the A9, termed links, are also calculated as part of the annual road safety assessment process however the breakdown of these links on the A9 varies from that reported in the A9 Perth to Thurso Route Review Accident Analysis report from 2013.

Please find attached in Annex A the accident rates for the A9 from Inveralmond Roundabout to Scrabster. Accident rates are reported per million-vehicle kilometres.

It should be noted low traffic flows or short section lengths may skew the accident rate and therefore these are considered on a link by link basis by experienced road safety engineers through the annual road safety assessment process.

These rates, for the reasons set out above, cannot be compared directly with the figures set out in the A9 Perth to Thurso Route Review Accident Analysis report from 2013.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202300369196 - Information Released - Annex A

File type

Excel document

File size

17.2 kB