Transport: casualties

Transport Scotland publish annually the following two publications, Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland and Reported Road Casualties Scotland. The former publication (Key Reported Road Casualties Scotland) is published first and presents provisional statistics for the previous year. The latter publication (Reported Road Casualties Scotland) is published later in the year and contains the finalised statistics. Figures may change as a result of late returns and amendments to the data, although these changes are likely to be small. These statistics are based on information Police Scotland collect for road collisions where someone has been injured or killed. Collisions with no injuries and collisions not reported to the police are not included in these figures. The publications include data by police force division and local authority area.

Injuries are graded as fatal, serious or slight. A new collision recording system in 2019 changed the way that slight and serious casualties are recorded. Data for 2004 to 2019 have been adjusted to match the new system, but recording of slight and serious injuries prior to 2004 may not be comparable with later years. This does not affect recording of total casualties or fatalities.

The most recent publication, Reported Road Casualties Scotland 2023, states that in 2023 police recorded 4,251 collisions in Scotland in which someone was killed or injured. These resulted in 5,829 road casualties: 155 people were killed, 1,944 seriously injured and 3,730 slightly injured.

Road injuries of all severities had been falling steadily since the 1990s. Chart 1 below shows this long-term trend. There was a steep reduction in 2020 as overall traffic volumes fell during the Covid-19 pandemic. As traffic volumes have risen again since the pandemic the number of collisions and injuries have also risen, although they are still below the 2019 numbers. (Please note, as already mentioned above, due to changes in the way casualty severity is recorded, the numbers of serious and slight casualties prior to 2004 may not be comparable with later years.)

In 2023, over half of road casualties (58%) were car users, 16% were pedestrians, 7% pedal cyclists, 8% motorcyclists, 3% bus users. The total casualties in 2023 included:

• 3,428 male casualties and 2,397 female casualties.
• 582 child casualties under 16 years, including 178 seriously injured and 5 killed.

Public Health Scotland publish data on road injuries resulting in an emergency hospital admission in its publication on Unintentional injuries.