Road deaths have hit a five year high and increased by 4% on the previous 12 months, prompting fresh calls for the introduction of a road collision investigation branch, similar to those seen in rail and aviation.

 

Government figures show there were 1792 road deaths in 2016, with pedestrian fatalities up 10% in a year (to 448) and the number of people killed in cars up 8% (to 816).

 

There were 102 cyclist fatalities last year, an annual increase of 2%, and there were 69 children who were killed on the roads, up from 54 deaths in 2015. Among people over the age of 60 there were 533 fatalities, up from 492 in 2015.

 

Statisticians claimed that the increase in the overall number of deaths is “not statistically significant” adding that “the trend in the number of fatalities has been broadly flat since 2010”.

 

But the RAC Foundation’s director Steve Gooding said: “These numbers tell a familiar story. Since 2011 there has been next to no progress made in cutting the number of crash deaths.

 

“It is time for the establishment of a road accident investigation branch so lessons can be learned and best practice shared across the country to help bring down these stubbornly high figures.”

 

Transport Research Laboratory academy director Richard Cuerden added: “We are very disappointed to see that road casualties increased in 2016. The increase reinforces the need for the establishment of a UK road collision investigation branch to gather and make available better data to provide the evidence base to reduce the number of fatalities and injuries on our roads.”

 

Road Safety GB communications director Iain Temperton commented: “It is very worrying that we are seeing a reversal in the gains we have made in previous years  Clearly we need to understand the reasons for this and establish policy and practice to resume progress in reducing casualties.”

 

The figures also show that the number of people seriously injured in road accidents was up 9% on the year before, to 24,101. But statisticians point out that changes to the way around half of police forces report the severity of incidents mean that comparison with the 2015 figure should be “interpreted with caution”.

 

The Government also reported that the number of slightly injured persons fell by 4% to 155,491 and that overall casualty numbers fell by 3% to 181,384.

 

(Photo: West Midlands Police)