Increase in Scotland’s road deaths ‘deeply troubling’, says Brake

Transport Scotland has released provisional headline figures for road casualties reported to the police in Scotland in 2016, showing 191 people were killed in reported accidents in 2016 - 23 more than in 2015.
June 15, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

505 Transport Scotland has released provisional headline figures for road casualties reported to the police in Scotland in 2016, showing 191 people were killed in reported accidents in 2016 - 23 more than in 2015.

Commenting on the news, Jason Wakeford, spokesman for national road safety charity 4235 Brake, said the figures are deeply troubling. He said it is shocking to see more fatalities on Scotland's roads last year, and more children, cyclists and motorcyclists needlessly losing their lives.

"Today's statistics show that, while progress is being made toward some of the 2020 Scottish Road Safety Framework targets, there is far more work to be done,” he said. "We must strive for a vision of zero deaths and serious injuries on our roads. We urge the 2112 Scottish Government to implement a default 20mph limit in built up areas, accompanied by additional speed enforcement on roads by the police.

Brake is also calling on the 1690 European Commission to urgently update new vehicle safety standards and the UK Government to set up a Road Collision Investigation Branch. “Understanding and collating the details of individual road crashes and the circumstances that led to them is critical, to enable lessons to be learned and help prevent future deaths across the country," said Wakeford.

Related Content

  • December 2, 2013
    Auto safety initiative seeks to reduce driver errors
    A push by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to use technology to reduce traffic fatalities aims to keep drunk drivers off the roads by using in-vehicle technology that immobilises their cars. They are pushing for systems that prevent drivers from starting their cars, help cars avoid collisions and prevent vehicles from starting if the occupants don’t wear seat belts. "Ninety per cent of all crashes have an element of human error," NHTSA administrator David Strickland said. "We really
    Read More
  • November 21, 2017
    Report highlights cost effectiveness of crash reduction strategy
    Local authorities in the UK needs an immediate injection of £200 million to tackle the high risk road sections, according to a new report from the Road Safety Foundation charity and Ageas UK. Called Cutting the Cost of Dangerous Roads, the report reveals that UK motorways and ‘A’ roads on the EuroRAP network make up 10% of the road network that contains half of all road deaths. It found that single carriageway ‘A’ roads have a risk factor seven times higher than motorways and nearly three times that of d
    Read More
  • June 6, 2019
    Continental: US road deaths are ‘public health crisis’
    The 40,000 deaths on US roads last year amount to a ‘public health crisis’, according to Continental North America’s president Jeff Klei. Giving the opening keynote address at ITS America’s 28th Annual Meeting & Expo, Klei said: “If you could save 40,000 lives a year, would you? We believe this situation needs to be treated with the same priority as other health crises in this country.” But help is at hand, he said. The concept of ‘Vision Zero’, where there are no fatalities from crashes, “seems a lon
    Read More
  • January 23, 2015
    NHTSA to add automatic braking systems vehicle safety features
    US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has announced that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to add two cutting-edge automatic emergency braking systems to the recommended advanced safety features included under its New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) – the latest step in a half-century of safety innovations that have saved more than 600,000 lives, according to new NHTSA research. The agency plans to continue to encourage development and commercialization of additional promising saf
    Read More

Highlighted Content