The uk stats for total road traffic accidents in 2008
Among the countries of the European Union, UK is one country that is believed to have the safest road safety. In spite of this, UK is also the country that encounters many accidents on daily basis. The number of accidents in UK is relatively more as compared to other countries of the EU; because a driver in UK spends 8.5 hours on average on the road compared to the 7.5 hours spend by the drivers of other EU countries. In 1998, the UK government set a target that the number of accidents would be decreased by 40% by the year 2010. Looking at the statistics since 1998, we see that the number of accidents has decreased by 7%, and the number of fatalities has also dropped from an average of 3,578 in 1998 to 2,946 on average in 2007.
The total number of injuries caused every year due to accidents is around 200,000, out of which there are around 3000 deaths. Out of the total accidents that take place in the country, there are 5% that occur due to exceeding speed limits. Records show that the accidents occurring now in UK are relatively lesser than before.
In the year 2008, there have been 247,780 road casualties which is 4% less than what it was in the year 2006. In addition to that, the number of deaths while driving over the alcohol limit was 460 which is 18% less than last year. In the year 2005, there were 271,071 total casualties caused by road accidents and out of these 3,201 were deaths while 28,954 were reported to be serious injuries. From the total statistics, 50% of the improvement is seen among the young drivers. However, young drivers still comprise of 42% of the total accidents that take place. All these records are gradually improving since the year 1930, which shows that UK is gradually moving towards its target for the year 2010.
Earlier this year, there were many accidents caused due to the icy conditions on the roads. However, the accidents were not of a serious nature. The areas from which these reports came are Worcestershire, Solihull, Black Country, Birmingham, Warwickshire, and the Bromsgrove Highway. Most of the cases were of trapping and black frost.
There are some areas which have been the hotspots for accidents during the year. The place that tops the list is Slough where there were 49.1% more accidents than the total national average. The second is Ilford which is 44% above average, and on the third number was Birmingham, which was 33.1% above the national average. London is 24% above the national average, while Manchester and Milton Keynes were 13.1% and 12.2% respectively. The safest places have been reported to be Belfast being 44% below national average, Swansea and Aberdeen.
The areas where the severity of accidents has been relatively low include Manchester, Merseyside, and the West Midlands. Wiltshire and Northamptonshire are reported to be dangerous areas as far as the severity of accidents is concerned. Other than that, the South West of Greater London also has a considerably larger number of accidents.