With the publication of the Department for Transport’s Reported Road Casualties Great Britain 2020 data it is an opportunity to reflect on the targets set out in the 2015-2020 strategy against the 2005-2009 baseline.
A lot has changed since 2015, including the introduction of injury-based reporting in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough in April 2016 and the coronavirus pandemic, which significantly changed road use during 2020.
The Vision Zero partnership has also set out a new strategy and targets looking forward to 2030 and beyond, however this is an opportunity to reflect on the previous strategy and progress that was made.
Targets for 2020
The 2015-2020 strategy set out the following targets:
- To reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured (KSI) in collisions by at least 40% by 2020.
- To reduce the number of children killed or seriously injured in collisions by at least 40% by 2020.
- To reduce the number of cyclists and pedestrians killed or seriously injured in collisions by at least 40% by 2020.
The effect of injury-based reporting
With Police forces moving to injury-based reporting, the Department for Transport have acknowledged this has affected the way some casualties are recorded, particularly with a proportion of casualties previously (incorrectly) coded as ‘slight’ being coded to ‘serious’ when the injury-based method is used. The Department for Transport have published full technical information on these adjustments on their website.
The partnership’s 2015-2020 strategy used a baseline prior to any adjustment being undertaken. With Cambridgeshire and Peterborough moving to injury-based reporting during 2016, it is important the adjusted figures are used to allow comparability of the data before and after the change in reporting method. Therefore, the baseline figures used below are the adjusted KSI data, not the original data used in the 2015-2020 strategy report.
Performance
The table below shows performance against each of the 40% reduction by 2020 targets.
The target for reducing the total number of KSI casualties was not met (36% reduction). The target to reduce the number of child KSI casualties was met (47% reduction in casualties age 0-15 and 67% reduction in casualties age 16 and 17). The target for reducing the number of pedestrian and cyclist KSI casualties was met for pedestrians (54% reduction) but not cyclists (2% increase). These figures take no account for changes in risk associated with increases or reductions in traffic in any of the groups. It is worth noting that cycling levels have increased over the period 2005-2020 therefore relative risk will have reduced.
|
Casualty type |
2005-09 baseline average (adjusted) |
2020 |
% change |
|
All KSI
|
640.1 |
411 |
-36% |
|
Child KSI (age 0-15)
|
51.3 |
27.3* |
-47% |
|
Child KSI (age 16/17)
|
39.7 |
13* |
-67% |
|
Pedestrian KSI
|
81.1 |
36 |
-54% |
|
Cyclist KSI
|
75.8 |
77 |
+2% |
*child KSI figures are reported as the 3-year average for 2018-2020
