Fatalities fall on strategic road network
New data shows there was a bigger fall in the number of fatalities on England’s motorways and A roads during 2020 than on the entirety of the road network. 2020 was a year heavily impacted by Covid-19 – and previously published figures from the DfT show there was a 17% fall in the total number of road deaths in Great Britain when compared to 2019. This is due to less traffic on the road caused by travel restrictions – down by 21%.
New data published by National Highways shows there were 138 deaths on the strategic road network (SRN) in England during 2020 – a year-on-year fall of 34%. There were similar falls in the number of KSIs (down 32%) and in all casualties (down 36%). This compares with a 25% fall in traffic.
Looking at road user type, 80 of the recorded fatalities on the SRN in 2020 were car occupants, 11 HGV occupants and 7 LGV occupants. Among those typically classed as vulnerable, 23 pedestrians were killed – this figure including those who were travelling in a vehicle on the network and were outside their vehicle at the time of the collision, for example, on the hard shoulder.
There were 16 motorcyclists killed, along with one cyclist. In terms of casualty rates, motorcyclists were ranked as the most vulnerable, with 77.86 KSI casualties per hundred million vehicle miles travelled.
However, this is still considerably lower than the reported national average for motorcyclists (including passengers) on all roads in Great Britain, which is approximately 179.5 KSIs per hundred million vehicle miles.
