Key 2007 Road Accident Statistics

2. Background

2.1 This bulletin presents provisional statistics of injury road accidents (i.e. road accidents in which one or more people were killed or injured) in Scotland in 2007. These figures were extracted from the Scottish Government's road accidents statistical database on 11 May 2007. The final totals for 2007, which will appear in "Road Accidents Scotland 2007", may differ slightly due to (e.g.) late returns and amendments. For similar reasons, the figures given here for 2006 and earlier years may differ slightly from those published previously.

2.2 The statistics are the numbers of injury road accidents which were reported by the police. Each accident is classified according to the severity of its most seriously injured casualty. Very few, if any, fatal accidents do not become known to the police. However, there could be many non-fatal injury accidents which are not reported by the public to the police, and are therefore not counted in these statistics because the police can only report accidents of which they are aware.

2.3 The casualty reduction targets for 2010 are described in section 10.4. Progress towards them is covered in section 8, tables 5 to 7 and the charts on page 11. The figures for 2007 are compared with the annual averages for 1994-98 as this is the baseline period used for the targets. In the charts on page 11, the thick solid lines show the figures recorded so far, the horizontal dashed lines show the baseline averages, and the dotted downward line indicates how the figures would have to fall in order to reach the targets for 2010 by means of a constant annual percentage reduction.

2.4 "Key 2007 Road Accident Statistics" is one of a series of Transport Statistics publications, most of which focus on particular aspects of transport and cover them in depth. A comprehensive statistical picture of transport activity is given in the compendium "Scottish Transport Statistics" volume, the "Main Transport Trends" bulletin and the "Key Transport Statistics" card. "Key 2007 Road Accident Statistics" is followed in the Autumn by "Road Accidents Scotland", a volume which includes extensive analyses of the numbers of accidents, vehicles and casualties.