Road safety statistics

The Council and its partners are very successful in reducing casualties on the city’s roads. The number of people killed and seriously injured has reduced by more than 50% since 1998.

The target of reducing road casualties plays a central role in meeting the strategic objectives of Plymouth’s Performance Plan 2007 to 2008.

• Promoting safer modes of transport in preference to the car means an increase in walking, cycling and public transport leading to an increase in health and well-being.
• Providing more pedestrian and cycling links on our roads will promote community safety through an increased level of pedestrians and cyclists providing natural surveillance.
• Improving public transport links will lead to predictable journey times on public transport leading to a safer and more effective transport system. More information on planned improvements can be seen on our transport planning pages.
• Enhancing walking, cycling and public transport infrastructure and promoting these will improve the environment in Plymouth through an increase in air quality.

What are the main causes of casualties on our roads?

Car drivers cause the overwhelming majority of road casualties on the city’s roads. The main factor involved is the use of excess speed by car drivers. The Council’s road safety publicity campaigns regularly remind drivers to use the appropriate speed for the conditions in which they are driving. Where self-enforcement is not successful speeds are reduced through design and enforcement measures.

Casualty reduction targets

The government has set local authorities casualty reduction targets up to 2010, compared with the baseline average for 1994 to 1998. Plymouth’s targets can be viewed in our Road Safety Strategy. The table below provides an overview of casualties and the targets for 2010.

* Killed and seriously injured. The KSI figures include the figures in the 'fatal' column.

To see the progress that the Council and its partners are making in reducing road casualties in the city please download the graphs from the documents table below.

Documents

To view these documents you might need to download some software. Visit our downloads page for more information.

	Child killed and seriously injured graph - graph showing child killed and seriously injured casualties and the original and new target. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 9.7KB
	All killed and seriously injured graph - graph showing killed or seriously injured casualties and the original and new targets. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 10.2KB
	Slight casualties graph - graph showing slight casualties and the original and new targets. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 9.5KB