Road deaths up 4% in 2014: Vehicle defects responsible for 36.1% of casualties

摘要

The latest Department for Transport data, compiled by the Office of National Statistics shows that road deaths increased by 4 per cent compared with 2013, rising to 1,775. The "Reported road casualties Great Britain: annual report 2014," which was published on 24 September also points out that the number of people seriously injured increased by 5 per cent to 22,807 in 2014. During the same period traffic volumes rose by 2.4 per cent. And while this is the highest rate of growth of motor vehicle traffic since 1996, the fact that deaths and serious injuries are growing twice as fast as traffic volumes suggests things are getting worse rather than better. Most of the statistics in the report are based on information about accidents reported to the police. However, other sources such as mortality, national travel survey, coroners' reports, are also used to broaden the context. With this in mind, TyreSafe highlighted some more specific figures: Deaths and all injuries in accidents caused by tyre-related defects increased to 1125, the average over past five reported years was 1135. During the last year, the number of motorists killed or seriously injured (KSI) in accidents caused by tyre-related defects increased to 224. While the total number of tyre-related deaths and injuries may be marginally below, the number of tyre-related deaths is actually moving in the opposite direction. The average of this measure over the over past five reported years is 198, meaning there were 26 more tyre related details in 2014 than the year before. And what's more accidents related to vehicle defects (including defective tyres) are responsible for 36.1 per cent of casualties.