Road traffic accident statistics: FOI release

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.


Information requested

Following on my previous email I'd ask for the following information:

Road traffic accident statistics going back as far as possible.

Road injury statistics going back as far as possible along with a breakdown of minor or serious.

Statistics of fatalities on Scottish roads again going back as far as possible.

Statistics of vehicle volumes on the roads ideally covering the last ten years or more if possible.

Statistics of road use ( miles covered / travelled ) per year on Scottish roads again for ten years or more if possible.

Percentage of populations for every thousand ( you have one year on your website ) killed or seriously injured in road traffic collisions again over ten years and if that can be subdivided as to if it was fatality or injury.

Response

The records we hold relate to collisions where someone is injured or killed, and which become known to Police Scotland. Therefore, we do not hold data where a collision was damage only.

The attached excel file provides the information that you requested:

  • Table 1 is from our Reported Road Casualties publication and includes statistics for the number of road vehicles registered in Scotland (the ‘Vehicles licensed’ column) and the distance travelled on Scotland’s roads (the ‘Traffic on all roads’ column).
  • Table 2 is from our Reported Road Casualties publication and provides statistics for collisions and casualties as far back as we have them. This includes breakdowns of severity.
  • In addition, the attached file includes a further table showing rates per thousand population for fatalities and serious injuries.

Please note that there are complications with comparing the figures for serious and slight collisions and casualties over time. In mid-2019, Police Scotland moved to a new system for recording and processing information on road collisions. This led to differences in the figures for serious and slight collisions and casualties.

For the years 2004 to 2019, the attached spreadsheet uses figures for slight collisions, serious casualties, and serious collisions that have been adjusted in order to maximise comparability with figures for the most recent years. This does mean that the figures for serious and slight collision and casualties are not comparable prior to 2004. More information is set out in the ‘Changes in severity reporting and ‘adjustments’ to figures’ section of the Introduction to our Key Reported Road Casualties publication.

About FOI

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

FOI 202400443200 - Information Released - Annex

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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