Comparison of Police STATS 19 Road Casualty Statistics with some other figures for Scotland
Figure 9: Comparison of Police Stats 19 and GROS figures for numbers of road deaths
NB: there are definitional differences between Stats 19 and GROS figures. For example:
- GROS figures cover all deaths in accidents involving motor vehicles, wherever they occur, so include those occurring on private roads, in car parks, off-road in farmyards and at works yard, etc - whereas Stats 19 figures relate only to accidents on public roads
- someone who was fatally injured in a road accident but died more than 30 days later would be counted as a serious injury (rather than a fatality) in the Stats 19 returns, but would be counted by GROS as a death due to a road traffic accident
- someone who was fatally injured in Scotland and died in England less than 30 days later would be counted in the Scottish Stats 19 returns as a fatality, but would not be counted as such by GROS because they did not die in Scotland
so one cannot expect the two sets of figures to agree exactly.
1. Introduction
The injury road accident statistics produced from police forces' Stats 19 returns cannot be comprehensive. The police can only report details of the accidents of which they are aware. There could be many injury accidents, not reported by the public to the police, which do not appear in the Stats 19 returns. This chapter compares the official road accident casualty statistics for Scotland, produced from Stats 19 returns, with figures from some other sources. It refers to:
- General Register Office for Scotland road death figures (Section 2)
- numbers of emergency admissions to hospital as the result of road traffic accidents (Section 3);
- findings from two studies of casualties at a few individual hospitals (Section 4);
- results from the Scottish Household Survey (Section 5);
- some other research into these matters (Section 6)
The main conclusions are:
- Stats 19 figures are a reliable measure of the level of, and trends in, the number of road deaths - they are very similar to GROS figures, but not the same due to definitional differences;
- Stats 19 killed and seriously injured ( KSI) figures have fallen by 33% between 1996 and 2005, compared with a fall of only 15% in hospital admissions due to road traffic accidents;
- Stats 19 child KSI figures have fallen by 53% between 1996 and 2005, compared with a fall of only 31% in child hospital admissions due to road traffic accidents;
- the comparison between Stats 19 and hospital figures suggests that pedal cyclists are the type of casualty most under-reported in police figures: in 2005, their Stats 19 figure was only 31% of their hospital admissions figure (and only 16% for child pedal cyclist casualties). Research found that many casualties who went to a hospital with an injury serious enough for medical attention did not appear in Stats 19 (after excluding those who reported their accident as being off-road, who would not be within the scope of the Stats 19 returns);
- 36% of adults interviewed in the Scottish Household Survey who had been injured in a road accident in the past year said that it had not been reported to the police; and
- the work done so far cannot answer the question of whether there has been a systematic change in the level of reporting and the Department for Transport is undertaking further work
2. Road deaths: comparison with General Register Office for Scotland figures
GROS records the numbers of deaths registered in Scotland each year due to injuries sustained in motor vehicle (and other road vehicle) accidents. Figure 9 shows that the Stats 19 and GROS numbers of road deaths are similar in every year, that they tend to rise and fall together, and that, in 2005, they were at the lowest level that has been recorded for many years.
The numbers themselves appear at the left-hand side of Table Q, which shows that (for example) both the Stats 19 and the GROS figures fell by 20% between 1996 and 2005. The table also has two columns (in the middle) which show that the difference between the
Figure 10: Comparison of Police Stats 19 and hospital admissions as a result of a road traffic accident
The hospital admissions figures for 1980 to 1995 are Scottish Hospital In Patient System ( SHIPS) figures for emergency hospital admissions as a result of a road traffic accident, as shown in a TRL research report (see Section 6); the figures for 1996 onwards were supplied by the Healthcare Information Group of the health service's Information Services Division, or obtained from ISD Scotland's Web site. Statistics about unintentional injuries are available via: www.isdscotland.org/unintentional_injuries. (Alternatively, go to www.isdscotland.org then click on Information and Statistics thenA-Z Index thenUnintentional Injuries.) That takes you to a page which has links to:
- Unintentional injuries in children and Unintentional injuries in adults pages, both of which have links to Road Traffic Accidents ;
- an Interactive Information page, from which you can get various tables on emergency hospital admissions, such as a time-series table by cause of injury which shows Road Traffic Accidents separately ; and
- a List of Tables page, from which you can get a range of tables, including some on emergency hospital admissions by type of injury or cause of injury, which show Road Traffic Accidents separately.
Stats 19 and GROS numbers of road deaths has fluctuated from year to year, but the Stats 19 figure has always been between 92% and 101% of the GROS one (with an average of 96%).
One cannot expect the two sets of numbers to agree exactly, because there are definitional differences between the Stats 19 and GROS figures (these are described in the notes beneath Figure 9). However, it is clear that the net effect of such differences is not great, and that the Stats 19 figures are a reliable measure of the level of, and trends in, the number of road deaths.
3. Road accident casualties who were killed or seriously injured ( KSI): comparison with hospital admission figures
3.1 Introduction
This section compares Stats 19 KSI with hospitals' numbers of emergency admissions as the result of road traffic accidents. It uses Stats 19 KSI because, in road accident statistics:
- serious injuries include any for which a person is detained in hospital as an in-patient; and
- a fatal injury results in death less than 30 days after the accident, so some hospital admissions will later be counted as road deaths (but other road deaths occur before reaching hospital)
Hospital admission figures are based on periods of care (episodes) under a particular consultant, so patients can be counted more than once (e.g. if they transfer to another consultant). However, the fact that a road accident casualty who transfers to another consultant will be counted twice in the hospitals' figures (compared to only once in the Stats 19 returns) should not affect greatly the relationship between the trends which are shown by the two sets of figures unless there is a marked change in the proportion of casualties who transfer to other consultants.
On admission to hospital, patients who had been involved in road traffic accidents are recorded specifically as being injured in a road traffic accident, to differentiate them from those who were involved in accidents that occurred off-road (so the numbers should be comparable with the Stats 19 figures). The break in the hospital admissions series between 1995 and 1996 is due to changes to (a) the way in which patients' conditions were recorded and (b) the reporting period (from the calendar year to the financial year) - it should not affect comparisons of the trends since 1996 shown by the Stats 19 and hospital figures. These comparisons go up to the 2005 calendar year (Stats 19) and 2005-06 financial year (hospital figures) because the latter are the latest available at the time of writing (the hospital figures for the 2006-07 financial year are due to be published in mid-December 2007).
3.2 Comparisons - overall trends
Figure 10 shows that both sets of figures have been falling over the past 20-or-so years. The numbers appear in Table Q, which shows hospital emergency admissions as the result of a road traffic accident (both for all ages and children) and the relevant Stats 19 figures. It is clear that:
- up to the mid-1990's the Stats 19 and hospital figures were broadly the same, and tending to fall at similar rates;
- since the mid-1990's the Stats 19 figures have been noticeably lower than the hospital figures, and have fallen more rapidly. The changes between 1996 and 2005 are:
- All ages:
- Stats 19 KSI - 33% fall
- Hospital admissions - 15% fall
- Children:
- Stats 19 KSI - 53% fall
- Hospital admissions - 31% fall
As a result, the Stats 19 figures represent a decreasing percentage of the hospital figures. Between 1980 and 1995, the overall average for Stats 19 KSI figures as a percentage of the hospital figures was 107%; between 1996 and 2005, it was only 78%. One can speculate about possible reasons for the different trends - there might have been:
- reduced reporting of road accidents by the public to the police (and hence increased under-reporting in Stats 19); and/or
- changes in the way in which Police Forces report accidents in their Stats 19 returns; and/or
- an increase in the proportion of road casualties going to a hospital; and/or
- changes in hospitals' practices (which might result in, for example, an increased proportion of the casualties who go to A&E departments being admitted to hospital, or a larger proportion of admissions as a result of a road accident being identified as such in hospitals' data); and/or
- road safety improvements which reduced the number of less serious serious injuries (those which are counted as serious in Stats 19 but which do not involve being admitted to hospital); and/or
- other factors which have different effects on the trends shown by the two sets of figures
While some indications are beginning to emerge, it is not completely clear which (if any) of these reasons caused the different trends in the Stats 19 and hospitals figures. Further research may help (see section 6).
3.3 Comparisons - types of road user
Hospital admissions figures by type of road user are only readily available from the current system, and hence are only available back to 1996-97. Table R shows the Stats 19 KSI figures as percentages of the corresponding hospital admissions due to road traffic accidents figures. Because these comparisons are based on overall numbers they do not represent the full extent of the differences between the two sources of data (a casualty counted in Stats 19 but not in the hospital admissions figures will off-set one counted in the hospital figures but not in Stats 19).
The left-hand side of table R covers casualties ofall ages. Pedestrians, motorcyclists and car users (the most numerous types of casualty) have the smallest percentage difference between the two sets of figures, but the gaps are widening (e.g. the Stats 19 number of car user casualties represented 99% of the number of hospital admissions in 1998, but only 75% in 2005). Pedal cyclists show the greatest percentage difference, with recent Stats 19 figures representing only about 30% of the numbers of hospital admissions. While many pedal cyclist accidents occur off-road and are therefore not within the scope of Stats 19 (see Sections 4 and 6.3), the use of the relevant code should ensure that only the on-road casualties were included in these hospitals figures.
Recent work by the Department for Transport (using data for England) suggests that on road pedal cyclist accidents which do not involve other vehicles are very unlikely to be reported to the police (see section 6.3). As it happens, such under-reporting of pedal cyclist casualties has not caused the difference in trends between the Stats 19 and hospitals figures: the Stats 19 figure for pedal cyclists has remained at roughly 30% of the hospitals figure since 1997, fluctuating only slightly (between 27% and 33%) from year to year. The main cause of the different trends is the fall from around 100% to about 75% in the corresponding percentage for car users, who account for about half of all Stats 19 KSI casualties.
Child casualties
The differences are, in general, markedly lower than for child casualties than for all ages: e.g. the child percentage for 2005 is only 53% compared with the all ages figure of 68% for the same year. Again, the greatest percentage difference is for pedal cyclists: latterly, Stats 19 figures represent at most 20% of the number of child pedal cyclists who are admitted to hospital as the result of a road traffic accident. Again, this could be due to the accidents occurring off-road and/or involving no other vehicles. Again, the under-reporting of child pedal cyclist casualties has not caused the difference in trends between the Stats 19 and hospitals figures: the Stats 19 figure for child pedal cyclists has remained at most a fifth of the hospitals figure since 1997, fluctuating only slightly (between 16% and 20%) from year to year.
The main cause of the difference in trends is the fall from over 90% to about 75% in the corresponding percentage for child pedestrians, who account for about two-thirds of all Stats 19 child KSI casualties. In addition, there has been a large fall (with considerable year-to-year fluctuation) in the percentage for child car users, who account for roughly a fifth of Stats 19 child KSI casualties.
4. Scottish Executive reports of studies of casualties at a few individual hospitals
4.1 Extent and Severity of Cycle Accident Casualties (2005)
Cyclists who reported to one of five Accident and Emergency Departments in the Lothian and Borders areas were asked to complete a questionnaire relating to their accident. 806 forms were collected from those (aged 5+) who had been involved in a pedal cycle accident between September 2003 and August 2004. The research found that many of the casualties who reported to hospital with a cycling injury serious enough for medical attention did not appear in the official road accident statistics. A large proportion of the accidents (41%) occurred off-road and therefore were not within the scope of the Stats 19 returns. However, even when comparing only those who reported their accident as being on the road (excluding pavements), the Stats 19 data appeared to under-report the extent of on-road cycling accidents. ( NB: strictly speaking, accidents which occur on the footway or pavement should be included in the Stats 19 returns: the table in Section 2 of the Stats 20 Instructions for the Completion of Road Accident Reports shows that footway or pavement accidents should be included, if the footway or pavement is part of a road.)
The cyclists attending A&E gave a wide range of causes for the accidents, and no single cause stood out. By contrast, Stats 19 data described a smaller range of causes, with the involvement of a motor vehicle being the predominant factor. The research also found that the official statistics on road accidents were much less likely to record pedal cycle accidents involving children than those involving adults.
4.2 Alcohol and the Pedestrian Road Casualty (1998)
This investigated the link between pedestrian accidents and the consumption of alcohol. Five hospitals were included in the study between October 1996 and April 1997. Casualties at Accident and Emergency who had been involved in a road traffic accident were asked to take part in the study. As part of the research, pedestrian casualties only were linked with the Stats 19 data, and additional analysis carried out where a match was found. Of 145 pedestrian casualties in the sample, 98 (68%) resulted in a match with Stats 19 records. Two possible reasons were given for this: (a) insufficient information available to make a match or (b) some accidents resulting in the presentation of a casualty were not reported to the police.
5. Scottish Household Survey ( SHS) Results
The Scottish Household Survey includes an interview with one randomly selected adult (aged 16+) per household in a sample spread across Scotland. The results are weighted to take account of differences in selection probabilities and response rates. Between February 1999 and March 2003, respondents were asked whether they had been injured in a road accident in the past twelve months, and if so, how they were involved (the answer is recorded using the following categories: the driver of a motor vehicle, a passenger in the vehicle, a pedestrian, a cyclist and other). The questions were then dropped from the survey, and reinstated in 2005 with an addition: respondents were also asked whether the accident had been reported to the police.
Table S compares the percentages of adults who had been injured (any severity) in an accident in a year, calculated from the SHS and Stats 19 data:
- Figures for all road users (top left of Table S) show that, Stats 19 data suggest around 0.4% of the adult population is injured in a road accident per year, whereas the SHS figure suggest 1.4%. Therefore, Stats 19 figure is around 28% of SHS results, and doesn't vary greatly with age (around 24% and 34% for every age-group);
- the remainder of Table S shows how this varies between road users - it is lowest for pedal cyclists (14%) and highest (44%) for pedestrians. The table does not subdivide the others between different types of motor vehicle (e.g. car, motorcycle, etc) because the way that the SHS interviewer records the answers does not distinguish between them
Although the SHS and Stats 19 figures are not on the same basis, this should not affect the conclusion greatly, given the extent of the difference between the two sets of figures: it is clear that the SHS percentages are several times those obtained from Stats 19.
In the two-year period 2005/2006 taken together, 36% of SHS respondents who said they had been injured in a road accident in the past year said that the accident had not been reported to the police. As this figure is based on only 346 adults who said that they had been injured in a road accident in the past year, it may be subject to a large sampling error (it has 95% confidence limits of +/- about 6 percentage points. However, whatever the true value is (say 30%, or 42%), it is clear that a large percentage of accidents involving personal injury are not reported to the Police.
6. Some other research
6.1 The Under-reporting of road accidents study
In 2004, the Department for Transport (DfT) commissioned research to review the previous evidence of under-reporting, to identify the potential for using additional sources of healthcare data, and to assess the level of under-reporting and mis-classification of road traffic casualties in order to find out whether there have been any changes in reporting and/or recording practice over the period from 1996 to 2004. In June 2006, DfT published:
- the report of the results of this study: Under-reporting of road accidents: Phase 1 (Road Safety Research Report 69) by Heather Ward, Ronan Lyons and Roselle Thoreau; and also
- a paper which compared some Stats 19 and hospital figures for road casualties in England: Road accident casualties: a comparison of STATS19 data with Hospital Episodes Statistics
Both reports are available on the DfT web site. At that time, the main points that DfT made were:
- it is widely known that not all road traffic accidents are reported to the police - neither a new nor solely British phenomenon, and the subject of a major DfT study in 1996;
- from the limited data available, the serious group of casualties could be up to twice as large as indicated by the Stats 19 serious category - entirely consistent with the earlier work, so the data for 1994-1998 (the baseline for the road casualty reduction targets) would also have been affected by under-reporting;
- the trends in the Stats 19 and hospitals data are different;
- the work done so far cannot answer the question of whether there has been a systematic change in the degree of under-reporting. Any conclusions drawn from a simple comparison of Stats 19 and hospitals figures would be misleading. As a result of the reports, DfT will shortly commission a more extensive project to address this question
Subsequently, in the Preface to Road Casualties Great Britain 2005, DfT stated that:
- … an appreciable proportion of non-fatal accidents are not reported to the police. In addition some casualties reported to the police are not recorded and the severity of injury tends to be underestimated. …. The Department is undertaking further research to investigate whether the level of under-reporting has changed
6.2 Investigation of trends in emergency hospital admissions
DfT investigated the trends in the hospitals' figures for road casualties in England, and reported some findings in an article in Road Casualties Great Britain 2006. DfT found that there was a large percentage increase between 2002-03 and 2005-06 in the total number of short stay admissions, both following a road accident and for other reasons, and that the increase was proportionately much greater for the latter. The article that practice for patients requiring short periods of observation and assessment has been to use assessment or short-stay admission wards for monitoring and for the benefit of the patient. DfT concluded that the rise (in England) in road traffic emergency admissions via A&E did not therefore necessarily equate to an actual rise in the number of road traffic accidents, but more likely represented a change in practice over that time.
The Information Services Division ( ISD) of the Scottish Health Service has provided the numbers of emergency hospital admissions in Scotland following a road traffic accident broken down by the length of stay. These show a 15% increase between 1996-97 and 2005-06 in the number of stays of length 0 days. Over the same period, there was a fall in the number of longer stays (both for 1 day and 2+ days in length): had the number of 0 day stays fallen at the same rate, there would have been roughly 240 fewer emergency hospital admissions following a road traffic accident in 2005-06, and the drop since 1996-67 would have been about 4-5%-points greater. However, there would still have been a marked difference between what would then be a fall of 19-20% in emergency hospital admissions and the fall of 33% in the Stats 19 KSI figure.
Hospital administrative procedures
It may be suggested that hospitals' figures may not provide reliable road casualty trends because they could be affected by national administrative changes - e.g. the introduction of targets for A&E waiting times could lead to casualties who would previously have left A&E following treatment after waiting more than (say) 4 hours now being admitted to hospital, and therefore now being counted as an admission following a road accident. On such points, it should be noted that:
- we understand that the A&E waiting time target for Scottish hospitals was introduced in December 2004 (and that it does not have to be met until the end of 2007), so it cannot have caused the difference between the trends shown by the Stats 19 and hospitals figures between 1996 and 2004;
- ISD's figures show that stays of length 0 days have increased fairly gradually, as a proportion of all emergency admissions following a road traffic accident, from 13% in 1996-97 through 14% in 1999-00 and 16% in 2002-03 to 18% in 2005-06 - there has not been the kind of sudden rise that might be expected if a significant change in practice had been applied across the country with effect from a particular date;
- ISD's figures also show a 15% increase, between 1996-97 and 2005-06, in the total number of stays of length 0 days for emergency admissions following all types of unintentional injury - over that period, they rose (again fairly gradually) from 18% to 23% of all such admissions, so again there is no evidence of a sudden change
These gradual increases in short stay emergency hospital admissions would be consistent with an increasing tendency to admit patients, of the kind that was mentioned in the DfT article.
The DfT article in Road Casualties Great Britain 2006 also mentioned some other factors which may have affected the trend in the figures for hospital admissions in England:
- improvements in the coding of the English hospitals' data. Since 1996, there has been increased validation of external cause codes and other improvements in coding. In addition, an improved IT system was introduced in 2002/03, which allowed for 14 diagnosis codes (rather than the 7 used previously). Some road casualties with extensive injuries would require more than 7 codes and, as the external cause code is always the last in the sequence, would not have been identifiable as such in the data collected previously.
- the introduction of Payment by Results has increased the importance of the data, and hence of the accuracy and number of codes recorded, because each Primary Care Trust in England is charged for the hospital treatment of its residents according to factors such as the length of stay and the severity and number of their conditions
However, ISD advises that such factors are unlikely to have had any effect on the figures for Scotland: there has been no change in past few years in the number of diagnosis codes (six) which is used in the Scottish system, and there is no Scottish equivalent of Payment by Results.
6.3 Pedal cyclist casualties - DfT comparison of English Stats 19 and hospitals figures
As noted earlier, pedal cyclists are the type of casualty most under-reported in the Stats 19 returns. DfT's article in Road Casualties Great Britain 2006 compared the Stats 19 and English Hospitals Episode Statistics ( HES) data for pedal cyclist casualties. In England, in the 2005-06 financial year, HES had 7,065 admissions of pedal cyclists, whereas Stats 19 recorded only 2,092 seriously injured pedal cyclists. DfT found that
- almost all the difference was due to HES having 4,268 pedal cyclists who had not been involved in a collision (e.g. people who just fell, or were thrown from, a bicycle which had not collided with any other vehicle), whereas Stats 19 had only 101 such casualties.
- the figures for pedal cyclists who had been involved in a collision with another vehicle do not differ as greatly (the relevant figures are HES: 2,186; Stats 19: 1,899).
- there was little difference between the number of casualties in HES and Stats 19 for pedal cyclist accidents which also involved cars, motorcycles, goods vehicles or buses. The differences were proportionately much larger in the case of pedal cyclists who had collided with an object, a pedestrian or an animal, another cyclist or an other vehicle.
- the distributions by age of HES and Stats 19 pedal cyclist casualties differed greatly - for example, in each of the 8-11 and 12-15 age-groups, HES had 1,000+ whereas Stats 19 had only a few hundred. However, when DfT excluded the no collision cases, it found clear similarities between the two distributions by age of pedal cyclist casualties who had been involved in a collision
DfT suggested that the differences might be due to two factors. First, if the location of an accident is not specified in the patient's records, it will be assumed that it was a traffic accident. This may mean that some off-road accidents are counted as traffic accidents, and non-collision pedal cycle accidents may be particularly vulnerable to this. Second, accidents in which a pedal cyclist is the only participant are relatively unlikely to be reported to the police.
The current definitions of the Stats 19 returns make it clear that accidents which involve no collision pedal cyclist casualties should be counted. Paragraph 2.2 of the Stats 20 Instructions for the completion of Road Accident Reports lists several examples of accidents to be reported, which include:
(c) accidents to pedal cyclists or horse riders, where they injure themselves or a pedestrian
and Note B states (in bold) that
The STATS19 requirement is clear that all accidents involving non-motor vehicles such as pedal cycles and ridden horses on public roads should be reported, regardless of motor vehicle or pedestrian involvement.
However, DfT's analysis of the English HES data shows clearly that Stats 19 includes only a tiny proportion of no collision pedal cyclist casualties - presumably, those involved in such accidents are very unlikely to see any need to inform the Police about them, with the result that the Stats 19 returns include very few no collision pedal cyclist casualties.
The same may well be the case in Scotland. ISD has looked at the data for Scottish hospitals' emergency admissions of pedal cyclists in the 2005-06 financial year. There were 420:
- 102 had collided with another road user (e.g. a pedestrian, a car, another pedal cycle, etc);
- 18 had collided with a fixed object;
- 275 were non-collision cases; and
- 25 for whom such information was not recorded
The sum of the 120 who were known to be involved in a collision and a proportion of the 25 unknown cases would give a result which would be close to the Stats 19 figure of 132 pedal cyclists killed or seriously injured in the 2005 calendar year - so it seems likely that more detailed analysis of the Scottish hospitals' data for pedal cyclists would produce results similar to those which DfT has obtained from the English data.
6.4 Linkage of STATS 19 and Scottish hospital in-patient data - analyses for 1980-1995
TRL Report 420 (published in 1999) contains a comparison of the police Stats 19 road accident statistics for serious injury (the definition of which includes any non-fatal-within-30-days-injury for which the casualty is detained in hospital as an in-patient) and Scottish Hospital In Patient System ( SHIPS) figures for emergency hospital admissions as a result of a road traffic accident up until 1995. These sets of figures show similar downward trends (that report's series of SHIPS figures was used to produce the hospital 1980-1995 line in Figure 10).
Table Q:GROS road deaths, hospital emergency admissions and Police Stats 19 statistics
| All ages | Children * |
|---|
GROS
deaths
from
road
transport
accidents
( X ) | Hospital
emergency
admissions
as the result
of a Road
Taffic
Accident # | Police Stats 19 statistics $ | Hospital
emergency
admissions
as the result
of a Road
Taffic
Accident # | Police Stats 19
statistics $ |
|---|
road casualties | road deaths | KSI |
|---|
Killed
&
Serious
injury
( KSI) | % of
hospitals
emerg.
admiss. |
|---|
Killed | Serious
injury | Killed
&
Serious
( KSI) | diff.
from
GROS | % of
GROS
figure | % of
hospitals
emerg.
admiss. |
|---|
1980 | 753 | 8,744 | 700 | 8,839 | 9,539 | -53 | 93% | 109% | | | |
|---|
1981 | 732 | 9,080 | 677 | 8,840 | 9,517 | -55 | 92% | 105% | | | |
|---|
1982 | 749 | 8,664 | 701 | 9,260 | 9,961 | -48 | 94% | 115% | | | |
|---|
1983 | 656 | 7,512 | 624 | 7,633 | 8,257 | -32 | 95% | 110% | | | |
|---|
1984 | 621 | 7,650 | 599 | 7,727 | 8,326 | -22 | 96% | 109% | | | |
|---|
1985 | 614 | 7,521 | 602 | 7,786 | 8,388 | -12 | 98% | 112% | | | |
|---|
1986 | 615 | 7,065 | 601 | 7,422 | 8,023 | -14 | 98% | 114% | | | |
|---|
1987 | 586 | 6,349 | 556 | 6,707 | 7,263 | -30 | 95% | 114% | | | |
|---|
1988 | 564 | 6,546 | 554 | 6,732 | 7,286 | -10 | 98% | 111% | | | |
|---|
1989 | 564 | 6,665 | 553 | 6,998 | 7,551 | -11 | 98% | 113% | | | |
|---|
1990 | 555 | 6,461 | 546 | 6,252 | 6,798 | -9 | 98% | 105% | | | |
|---|
1991 | 521 | 6,148 | 491 | 5,638 | 6,129 | -30 | 94% | 100% | | | |
|---|
1992 | 472 | 5,890 | 463 | 5,176 | 5,639 | -9 | 98% | 96% | | | |
|---|
1993 | 410 | 5,399 | 399 | 4,454 | 4,853 | -11 | 97% | 90% | | | |
|---|
1994 | 359 | 5,411 | 363 | 5,208 | 5,571 | 4 | 101% | 103% | | | |
|---|
1995 | 427 | 5,321 | 409 | 4,930 | 5,339 | -18 | 96% | 100% | | | |
|---|
1996 | 367 | 5,106 | 357 | 4,041 | 4,398 | -10 | 97% | 86% | 996 | 790 | 79% |
|---|
1997 | 389 | 5,316 | 377 | 4,047 | 4,424 | -12 | 97% | 83% | 1,116 | 745 | 67% |
|---|
1998 | 390 | 5,289 | 385 | 4,072 | 4,457 | -5 | 99% | 84% | 1,079 | 698 | 65% |
|---|
1999 | 324 | 4,941 | 310 | 3,765 | 4,075 | -14 | 96% | 82% | 1,012 | 625 | 62% |
|---|
2000 | 343 | 4,904 | 326 | 3,568 | 3,894 | -17 | 95% | 79% | 978 | 561 | 57% |
|---|
2001 | 369 | 4,881 | 348 | 3,410 | 3,758 | -21 | 94% | 77% | 893 | 544 | 61% |
|---|
2002 | 321 | 4,700 | 304 | 3,229 | 3,533 | -17 | 95% | 75% | 865 | 527 | 61% |
|---|
2003 | 351 | 4,422 | 336 | 2,958 | 3,294 | -15 | 96% | 74% | 776 | 432 | 56% |
|---|
2004 | 326 | 4,364 | 308 | 2,766 | 3,074 | -18 | 94% | 70% | 691 | 384 | 56% |
|---|
2005 | 294 | 4,362 | 286 | 2,665 | 2,951 | -8 | 97% | 68% | 692 | 368 | 53% |
|---|
2006 | 327 | | 314 | 2,627 | 2,941 | -13 | 96% | | | 373 | |
|---|
2007 | 295 | | 281 | 2,382 | 2,663 | -14 | 95% | | | 277 | |
|---|
Change from 1996(-97) to 2005(-06) |
|---|
| -20% | -15% | -20% | | -33% | | | | -31% | -53% | |
Overall averages |
|---|
1980 - 2007 | | | | | | 96% | 96% | | | |
|---|
1980 - 1995 | | | | | | 96% | 107% | | | |
|---|
1996 - 2005 | | | | | | 96% | 78% | | | 62% |
|---|
X deaths caused by road transport accidents - on the same basis as GROS Web site Table 6.10 Deaths from road transport accidents
# for 1996 onwards, these are for the financial years which start in the relevant calendar years (e.g. 1996 is the 1996-97 financial year) for the years up to 1995, these figures are taken from Table 1 of TRL report 420 Linkage of STATS19 and Scottish hospital in-patient data for 1996-97 onwards, the figures are from ISD, and identified using the SMR admission type code 32 Patient injury, Road Traffic Accident.
They may differ slightly from figures available from the ISD web site (e.g. in Unintentional Injuries Tables 2, E1 and E5, which cover
Emergency hospital admissions in Scotland as a result of an unintentional injury), because they take account of subsequent late returns and amendments. The ISD tables are available via www.isdscotland.org/unintentional_injuries
$ on the same basis as the figures which are published elsewhere in Road Casualties Scotland
* children covers ages 0-15 inclusive in the Police (Stats 19) statistics, and ages 0-14 inclusive in the hospitals emergency admissions figures
Table R: Hospital emergency admissions, Police Stats 19 numbers of killed and seriously injured road casualties, by road user type
Hospital emergency admissions #
| All ages | Children(0-14) |
|---|
Pedestrians | Pedal cyclists | Motor cyclists | Car | Other (e.g. bus) | All types of road user * | Pedestrians | Pedal cyclists | Car | Other (e.g. m-cycle, bus) | All types of road user * |
|---|
1996-97 | 1,370 | 435 | 352 | 2,382 | 567 | 5,106 | 590 | 198 | 139 | 69 | 996 |
|---|
1997-98 | 1,264 | 643 | 481 | 2,308 | 620 | 5,316 | 552 | 357 | 136 | 71 | 1,116 |
|---|
1998-99 | 1,168 | 681 | 421 | 2,426 | 593 | 5,289 | 470 | 390 | 145 | 74 | 1,079 |
|---|
1999-00 | 1,126 | 663 | 518 | 2,027 | 607 | 4,941 | 473 | 379 | 108 | 52 | 1,012 |
|---|
2000-01 | 987 | 623 | 522 | 2,180 | 592 | 4,904 | 419 | 349 | 133 | 77 | 978 |
|---|
2001-02 | 999 | 544 | 591 | 2,198 | 549 | 4,881 | 424 | 286 | 129 | 54 | 893 |
|---|
2002-03 | 937 | 502 | 569 | 2,121 | 571 | 4,700 | 390 | 269 | 139 | 67 | 865 |
|---|
2003-04 | 804 | 507 | 528 | 2,032 | 551 | 4,422 | 322 | 273 | 129 | 52 | 776 |
|---|
2004-05 | 855 | 451 | 524 | 1,934 | 600 | 4,364 | 331 | 203 | 82 | 75 | 691 |
|---|
2005-06 | 894 | 420 | 526 | 1,937 | 585 | 4,362 | 336 | 190 | 105 | 61 | 692 |
|---|
Killed and seriously injured(Police Stats 19 figures $ )
| All ages | Children(0-15) |
|---|
Pedestrians | Pedal cyclists | Motor cyclists | Car | Other (e.g. bus) | All types of road user | Pedestrians | Pedal cyclists | Car | Other (e.g. m-cycle, bus) | All types of road user |
|---|
1996 | 1,279 | 216 | 300 | 2,293 | 310 | 4,398 | 540 | 100 | 118 | 32 | 790 |
|---|
1997 | 1,211 | 210 | 358 | 2,365 | 280 | 4,424 | 505 | 78 | 138 | 24 | 745 |
|---|
1998 | 1,156 | 210 | 371 | 2,390 | 330 | 4,457 | 455 | 64 | 153 | 26 | 698 |
|---|
1999 | 1,143 | 189 | 431 | 2,004 | 308 | 4,075 | 430 | 69 | 108 | 18 | 625 |
|---|
2000 | 997 | 176 | 475 | 1,978 | 268 | 3,894 | 378 | 65 | 94 | 24 | 561 |
|---|
2001 | 918 | 171 | 454 | 1,952 | 263 | 3,758 | 353 | 56 | 110 | 25 | 544 |
|---|
2002 | 893 | 152 | 456 | 1,782 | 250 | 3,533 | 340 | 46 | 111 | 30 | 527 |
|---|
2003 | 775 | 139 | 417 | 1,700 | 263 | 3,294 | 273 | 48 | 93 | 18 | 432 |
|---|
2004 | 750 | 128 | 395 | 1,581 | 220 | 3,074 | 247 | 40 | 77 | 20 | 384 |
|---|
2005 | 742 | 132 | 404 | 1,458 | 215 | 2,951 | 244 | 30 | 69 | 25 | 368 |
|---|
2006 | 746 | 141 | 408 | 1,431 | 215 | 2,941 | 247 | 40 | 70 | 16 | 373 |
|---|
2007 | 652 | 151 | 420 | 1,270 | 170 | 2,663 | 184 | 29 | 55 | 9 | 277 |
|---|
Percentages of the hospital admissions figures for the relevant (financial) year |
1996 | 93% | 50% | 85% | 96% | 55% | 86% | 92% | 51% | 85% | 46% | 79% |
|---|
1997 | 96% | 33% | 74% | 102% | 45% | 83% | 91% | 22% | 101% | 34% | 67% |
|---|
1998 | 99% | 31% | 88% | 99% | 56% | 84% | 97% | 16% | 106% | 35% | 65% |
|---|
1999 | 102% | 29% | 83% | 99% | 51% | 82% | 91% | 18% | 100% | 35% | 62% |
|---|
2000 | 101% | 28% | 91% | 91% | 45% | 79% | 90% | 19% | 71% | 31% | 57% |
|---|
2001 | 92% | 31% | 77% | 89% | 48% | 77% | 83% | 20% | 85% | 46% | 61% |
|---|
2002 | 95% | 30% | 80% | 84% | 44% | 75% | 87% | 17% | 80% | 45% | 61% |
|---|
2003 | 96% | 27% | 79% | 84% | 48% | 74% | 85% | 18% | 72% | 35% | 56% |
|---|
2004 | 88% | 28% | 75% | 82% | 37% | 70% | 75% | 20% | 94% | 27% | 56% |
|---|
2005 | 83% | 31% | 77% | 75% | 37% | 68% | 73% | 16% | 66% | 41% | 53% |
|---|
# From ISD, identified using SMR admission type code 32 Patient injury, Road Traffic Accident
Having selected those cases, ISD distinguishes between the types of road user on the basis of their ICD10 diagnosis codes
V01-V09 = Pedestrian injured in transport accident
V10-V19 = Pedal cyclist injured in transport accident
V20-V29 = Motorcycle rider injured in transport accident
V40-V49 = Car occupant injured in transport accident
the Other category includes users of (e.g.) buses, goods vehicles, etc - and any road accident deaths which are due to suicide or natural causes (which should not be counted in the Police figures)
They are on the same basis as the figures which appear in ISD Web site Unintentional Injuries Table 9b
Number of emergency hospital admissions as a result of a RTA …
but may differ slightly due to subsequent late returns and amendments
* May differ slightly from the overall total in Table X, due to late returns and amendments
$ These are on the same basis as the figures published elsewhere in Road Casualties Scotland
Table S: Comparison between Police Stats 19 and Scottish Household Survey results
Age | Road casualties - all severities (Police Stats 19 figures) * | Scottish Household Survey | Police Stats 19 as a % of SHS | Road casualties - all severities (Police Stats 19 figures) * | Scottish Household Survey | Police Stats 19 as a % of SHS |
|---|
2003-2007 average | 1999- Mar 2003 and 2005 - 2007 | 2003-2007 average | 1999- Mar 2003 and 2005 - 2007 |
|---|
percentages of adults | % | percentages of adults | % |
All types of road user | Pedestrians |
|---|
16-22 | 0.730 | 2.711 | 27% | 0.090 | 0.219 | 41% |
|---|
23-29 | 0.505 | 2.199 | 23% | 0.054 | 0.096 | 57% |
|---|
30-39 | 0.466 | 1.789 | 26% | 0.045 | 0.081 | 56% |
|---|
40-49 | 0.328 | 1.258 | 26% | 0.031 | 0.074 | 42% |
|---|
50-59 | 0.259 | 1.189 | 22% | 0.029 | 0.061 | 48% |
|---|
60-69 | 0.196 | 0.732 | 27% | 0.030 | 0.072 | 41% |
|---|
70+ | 0.186 | 0.559 | 33% | 0.044 | 0.157 | 28% |
|---|
All adults | 0.371 | 1.365 | 27% | 0.044 | 0.100 | 44% |
|---|
Pedal cyclists | Others - drivers/riders and passengers |
|---|
16-22 | 0.015 | 0.151 | 10% | 0.625 | 2.341 | 27% |
|---|
23-29 | 0.021 | 0.175 | 12% | 0.430 | 1.928 | 22% |
|---|
30-39 | 0.024 | 0.129 | 18% | 0.397 | 1.579 | 25% |
|---|
40-49 | 0.014 | 0.111 | 13% | 0.283 | 1.073 | 26% |
|---|
50-59 | 0.008 | 0.057 | 15% | 0.221 | 1.071 | 21% |
|---|
60-69 | 0.005 | 0.050 | 9% | 0.162 | 0.610 | 26% |
|---|
70+ | 0.003 | 0.021 | 13% | 0.139 | 0.381 | 36% |
|---|
All adults | 0.013 | 0.092 | 14% | 0.314 | 1.173 | 27% |
|---|
* derived from the figures in Table 32, where they are shown as rates per thousand population
Note that the SHS and Police Stats 19 figures are not on the same basis - for example:
( a ) they relate to different periods - the Stats 19 figures are calculated from the data for the years from 2003 to 2007 inclusive, whereas the SHS figures are based on the combined data from all the samples for which the question was asked (1999-March 2003 and 2005-2007)
( b) the SHS respondent is asked whether he/she was injured in a road accident in the past year.
An injury obtained (say) 13-14 months ago might be counted, if the respondent couldn't remember exactly when, which could have inflated the SHS figures slightly
( c ) the word injury is subjective - what an SHS respondent regards as an injury may differ from what the Police would count as an injury, which could also affect the comparison
( d ) the SHS data relate only to adult members of Scottish households; the Stats 19 data will include non-Scots who were injured in Scotland, and exclude Scots injured elsewhere