Casualties on London’s roads at lowest level ever
12 Jun 2014 12:50 PM
Number of people killed
and seriously injured on London’s roads at lowest level
ever
- Number of people killed and
seriously injured on London’s roads at lowest level
ever
- Number of people killed and
seriously injured (KSI) on London’s roads falls 23 per cent during 2013
to lowest levels since records began
- Pedestrian KSIs significantly
down during 2013 with the total number down 25 per cent compared to
2012
- Total number of casualties in
London down five per cent to lowest level ever
- Mayor and TfL committed to
continue the long term trend of improved road safety by delivering “Safe
Streets for London” road safety plan and Mayor’s Cycle
Vision
- Casualty data from 2005-13 made
freely available on the TfL website to help people to carry out analysis on
almost a decade of accurate collision data.
The number of people killed and
seriously injured on London’s roads fell 23 per cent during 2013 to its
lowest level since records began, the Mayor and Transport for London (TfL)
announced yesterday (Wednesday, 11 June)
The figures, which cover the
period between January and December 2013, also show that the total number of
road casualties in London also fell by around five per cent to its lowest ever
level.A new road safety plan “Safe Streets for London”, published
in June last year, set out a clear path towards helping to reduce death and
serious injury on the capital’s roads.
Earlier this year, The Mayor and
TfL made six key commitments which, working with a range of partners, are
guiding a programme of work to improve road safety across London.Last year TfL
carried out a wide range of road safety initiatives across London, including
providing safety training for children at hundreds of schools, upgrading key
junctions for all road users and funding enforcement activity with the
Metropolitan Police.
This included working closely
with the Met to enforce road safety through Operation Safeway, which will
continue this year and run twice a month on unannounced days, with up to 1,000
police officers stationed simultaneously at around 100 junctions.Earlier this
year,
TfL also announced world leading
trials of pedestrian detection technology at crossings in Central
London.
With 550 pedestrian crossings at
200 locations across 30 London boroughs already equipped with ‘Pedestrian
Countdown’ technology, later this summer TfL will be trialling
‘Pedestrian Scoot’ - state-of-the-art video camera technology to
automatically detect how many pedestrians are waiting at
crossings.
TfL is also set to roll out
trials of detection equipment on London buses to help drivers be more aware of
pedestrians and cyclists near their vehicles, which if successful could be
rolled out across London's 8,700 buses.
The reduction in the total
number of people killed and seriously injured during 2013 now means that London
remains on track to achieve the Mayor’s road safety target to reduce the
number of people killed or seriously injured on London’s roads by 40 per
cent by 2020 (from a 2005-09 baseline), with 2013 progress meaning that London
is now 36 per cent below the 2005-09 average.
The road safety data from 2013
also shows
- There were 132 fatalities on
London’s roads in 2013, the second lowest number since records began,
with fatalities involving pedestrians down six per cent (65 down from 69 in
2012)
- Deaths involving powered
two-wheeled riders also fell by 19 per cent (22 down from 27 in 2012), while
cyclist deaths remained the same at 14
- During 2013 there were 489
killed and serious injuries to cyclists, compared with 671 in 2012 – this
27 per cent reduction means that around one in every 434,000 cycle journeys
made in London end in the cyclist being killed or seriously injured
(KSI)
- Pedestrian KSIs were also
significantly down during 2013 with the total number down 25 per cent compared
to 2012 (838 down from 1,123). This is also 31 per cent down when compared to
the 2005-2009 baseline and 55 per cent down when compared to the year 2000 (838
down from 1,870)
- The number of children killed
and seriously injured continued to fall across London in 2013, with a 31 per
cent reduction to 187 (down from 270 in 2012). This is also a reduction of
around three quarters when compared to the year 2000, showing the continuing
long-term progress in London in making its streets safer for
all.
The Mayor of London, Boris
Johnson, said: “These latest road casualty statistics are hugely
encouraging, but they are by no means the end of the story. Our ultimate goal
is to see a London where roads are free from death and serious injury, which is
why we’re investing significant funding to make the road network fit for
the 21st century. From overhauling the most notorious junctions, to investing
in the latest technology, TfL is pushing hard on all fronts to make
London’s roads as safe as they can possibly be for all
users.”
Leon Daniels, Managing Director
of Surface Transport at TfL said: “Improving road safety remains a top
priority for us and our partners. While there has been a welcome reduction in
the number of people killed or seriously injured, there remains an enormous
amount of work to do to achieve our long-term goal of removing all such
instances from London's roads. We have a huge programme of investment
underway to improve the road network and public spaces as London continues its
rapid growth. Much of this work includes radical steps to improve road safety,
including segregated cycling lanes and much improved junctions. We will also
make more data openly available to enable others to help us make progress. This
work is simply vital to making London a better place in which to live and work
and we are getting on with its delivery as quickly as
possible."
The Mayor, TfL, the Police and
London boroughs, continue to be engaged in a wide range of activity designed to
reduce road casualties further still.
These include:
Doubling the investment into
London’s road network during the next ten years from £2bn to
£4bn, with all new schemes built to our stringent safety standards and
taking into account improved pedestrian and cycling design
guidance
Carrying out a range of major
improvements to the capital's roads which will deliver further safety
benefits to all road users. For example, later this year TfL will begin public
consultation on new segregated cycle lanes as part of Cycle Superhighway 5 at
Vauxhall, improvements to Archway and Old Street roundabout, and the new
East-West cycle-route along Victoria Embankment, with a look to deliver all
these as quickly as possible
Working with the police, the
London boroughs and key stakeholders to deliver the Pedestrian and Motorcycle
Safety Action Plans which outline the actions required to further reduce
collisions involving vulnerable road users. A revised draft Cycle Safety Action
Plan, as well as draft new London Cycle Design Standards, will also be
published later this month for consultation, building on the ideas outlined in
the Mayor's Cycling Vision to make London’s roads safer for
cyclists
Working to make more road safety
data open and available to all stakeholders and developers. The 2013 casualty
data will be freely available on the TfL website, along with datafiles going
back to 2005, allowing people to carry out analysis on almost a decade of
accurate collision data. A new Digital Speed Map, which shows the current speed
limit of every road in London, will also be made freely available to developers
later this year
Ramping up enforcement against
all road users who act in an unsafe manner. Earlier this year, the Mayor
confirmed that regular road safety police operations, based on the original
“Operation Safeway” which ran at the end of last year, will
continue to operate across London for two days every month, on unannounced
days. The multi-agency Industrial HGV Task Force also continues to operate
across London, targeting non-compliant heavy goods (particularly
construction-related) vehicles, drivers and operators using the capital's
roads;•
Working with London Councils to
deliver the Mayor's plans for a Safer Lorry Scheme across London, which
would see dangerous vehicles not fitted with sideguards or mirrors giving the
driver a better view of cyclists and pedestrians around their vehicles, banned
from London. Subject to a formal consultation and legal procedures, which will
start later this month, the scheme could be introduced by the end of the
year.To find out more about what TfL is doing to tackle road safety more
widely, please visit: www.tfl.gov.uk/roadsafetyENDS
- The 2013 Road Safety factsheet
can be found here
- Open Data files with the
casualty data can be found here
- ‘Safe Streets for London
– London’s Road Safety Plan’ can be downloaded here:
- ‘Safe London Streets
– Our Six Road Safety Commitments’- can be downloaded here
The six key commitments as
stated are:
1. To lead the
way in achieving a 40 per cent reduction in the number of people killed or
seriously injured on the capital’s roads by 2020 – with a longer
term ambition of freeing London’s roads from death and serious
injury;
2. To
prioritise safety of the most vulnerable groups – pedestrians, cyclists
and motorcyclists – which make up around 80 per cent of serious and fatal
collisions;
3. To provide
substantial funding for road safety, invested in the most effective and
innovative schemes;
4. To increase
efforts with the police, boroughs and enforcement agencies in tackling illegal,
dangerous and careless road user behaviour that puts people at
risk;
5. To campaign
for changes in national and EU law to make roads, vehicles and drivers
safer;
6. To work in
partnership with boroughs and London’s road safety stakeholders to spread
best practice and share data and information
- In May 2011, the Department for
Transport (DfT) announced a new national baseline for analysing road safety
statistics as part of the DfT’s Strategic Framework for Road Safety,
based on the average casualty figures from 2005 to 2009 – link
- Around 30 per cent of KSI
collisions during 2013 occurred on the TfL Road Network, with the remaining 70
per cent occurring on borough roads. TfL continues to work closely with
boroughs to focus road safety measures in areas with high casualty rates.
A programme of training and best practice sharing for borough road safety teams
is now in place to ensure that the skills needed to make this step change in
road safety in London are available. TfL will also be hosting an annual road
safety conference in July with the London Road Safety Council to help further
share best practice with boroughs across London.
- Slight injuries are incidents
which are recorded by the Metropolitan Police but do not necessarily require
hospital treatment. Examples of slight injuries are sprains, neck whiplash,
bruises, slight cuts and slight shock