Accident and Casualty Statistics
The Recording of Accident and Casualty Data
Accident and casualty figures are collated by Durham Constabulary and passed on to Durham County Council for use in trying to reduce the number and severity of the accidents/casualties.Accidents and casualties are broken down into three separate levels of severity, fatal, serious and slight. Fatal is where a person is killed in an accident on the public highway. A serious accident is where a person incurs a serious injury that results in hospital treatment and usually an overnight stay in hospital. A slight injury is where a member of the public has a slight injury as a result of the accident. This may require medical treatment although not usually an overnight stay in hospital.
Both accidents and casualties can be classified as fatal, serious or slight. An accident will be given the classification depending upon the worst personal injury occurring in the accident. The number of casualties will differ from the number of accidents in our figures because one accident may result in more than one casualty of different severity. For example, if two cars collide resulting in a road accident with 4 people injured, this will be recorded as 1 accident on our system. However, our casualty figures will include all 4 people injured at their respective severity of injury.
Summary for 2006
- There were 1947 reported casualties in 2006 compared with 2138 in 2005 (a decrease on the 2005 figures of 10%).
- Fatal casualties have decreased from 35 in 2005 to 22 in 2006.
- Serious casualties have decreased from 213 in 2005 to 196 in 2006.
- Slight casualties have decreased from 1890 in 2005 to 1729 in 2006.
- Car passenger casualties have remained the same in 2006 as was in 2005 with 500 casualties. However, fatals have been reduced from 9 in 2005 to 3 in 2006. The largest group of passenger casualties occurs in the 15 - 19 year old age group.
- Car driver casualties have also decreased from a total of 956 in 2005 to 867 in 2006. This includes a reduction of 4 fatals from 12 to 8 and a major reduction in slight injuries from 890 to 802 in 2006.
- Motorcycle casualties have decreased from a total of 148 in 2005 to 139 in 2006. This reduction is mainly reflected in the reduction in slight injuries from 103 to 90. Fatal casualties increased from 5 to 6 and serious increased from 40 to 43 in 2006.
- Pedal cycle casualties have decreased in 2006 from a total of 81 casualties in 2005 to 71 casualties. The highest number of casualties occurs in the 10-14 year old age group.
- Pedestrian casualties have shown an overall decrease from 257 in 2006 to 241 in 2005. Significantly the number of fatal pedestrian casualties dropped from 8 to 1 in 2006.
Total Casualties and Accidents
See Figure 1, a summary of the casualty and personal injury accident accident statistics since 1994.Casualty Reduction Targets for the Year 2010
The new 10 year target published by the Department of the Transport and Local Government Regions DTLR (formerly DETR) in March 2000 aims to achieve, compared with the average for 1994-98:- A 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured in road accidents.
- A 50% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured in road accidents.
- A 10% reduction in the slight casualty rate, expressed as the number of people slightly injured per 100 million vehicle kilometres.
County Durham Casualties by Road Class in 2006:
- Motorways - 4%
- A Class Roads - 37%
- B Class Roads - 18%
- C Class Roads - 22%
- All other roads - 19%
County Durham Casualties by Junction Type in 2006:
- Not at a junction - 45%
- Roundabouts - 8%
- 'T' or Staggered junctions - 36%
- Mini-roundabouts - 1%
- Private - 5%
- Other - 5%
County Durham Casualties by Road User Type in 2006:
- Pedestrian - 12%
- Pedal Cycle - 4%
- Motor Cycle - 3%
- Car Driver - 44%
- Car Passenger - 25%
- Public Service Vehicle - 2%
- Other - 10%
- Car Driver and Passenger Casualties
- Pedestrian Casualties
- Motor Cycle Casualties
- Pedal Cycle Casualties
- Road Safety
