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Reported road casualties in Great Britain: pedestrian factsheet, 2023

Published 26 September 2024

This factsheet presents trends from 2004 onwards. However, grouped data for years from 2019 to 2023 is used widely in this publication in order to allow sufficiently robust analysis by age, sex and other variables.

This factsheet gives an overview and key statistics on pedestrians involved in road collisions in Great Britain as reported by or to the police. This factsheet examines the main trends in collisions involving pedestrians and the casualties involved.

Pedestrians are one of the vulnerable user groups. They are not protected by a vehicle body in the same way car users are, and tend to be harder for drivers to see on the road. They are, therefore, particularly susceptible to injuries.

Data in this factsheet is from 2004 onwards. Serious and slight injuries have been adjusted to account for changes in the severity reporting systems. More information on the change and adjustment process is available in the severity adjustment guidance.

It should be noted that it has been long known that a considerable percentage of non-fatal casualties are not reported to the police. This should be borne in mind when analysing and interpreting the data.

1. Main findings

Between 2004 and 2023:

• fatalities were down 40% from 671 to 405

• serious injuries (adjusted) decreased by 40%

• pedestrian traffic (distance walked) increased by 19%

Averaged over the period 2019 to 2023:

• an average of 8 pedestrians died and 106 were seriously injured (adjusted) per week in reported road collisions

• a majority of pedestrian fatalities (57%) do not occur at or within 20m of a junction compared to 46% of all seriously injured (adjusted) casualties

• nearly 3 in 5 (56%) of pedestrian fatalities were in collisions involving a single car

• 29% of pedestrian fatalities occurred on rural roads compared to 12% of all pedestrian casualties

• 57% of pedestrian killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties were male

• the most common contributory factor allocated to pedestrians in fatal or serious collisions (FSC) with another vehicle was ‘Pedestrian failed to look properly’. The most common factor allocated to the vehicles involved was ‘Driver or rider failed to look properly’

2. Pedestrian traffic and reported casualties

In 2023, 405 pedestrians were killed in Great Britain, whilst 6,067 were reported to be seriously injured (adjusted) and 12,791 slightly injured (adjusted).

Table 1 and Chart 1 show that pedestrian traffic (measured by distance walked) has risen between 2004 and 2023 whilst fatalities, serious and slight injuries have fallen.

Between 2022 and 2023, pedestrian fatalities increased by 5% while pedestrian traffic (distance walked) increased by 3%.

Chart 1: Index of pedestrian traffic (distance walked) and reported pedestrian casualties by severity, GB: 2004 to 2023 (Index 2004=100)

Table 1: Number of reported pedestrian casualties by severity and traffic (pedestrian billion miles walked), GB: 2004 to 2023

Year	Killed	Serious	Slight	All	Traffic
2004	671	10,042	24,168	34,881	12.52
2005	671	9,492	23,118	33,281	12.28
2006	675	9,100	21,207	30,982	12.64
2007	646	8,845	20,700	30,191	11.99
2008	572	8,445	19,465	28,482	12.09
2009	500	7,814	18,573	26,887	12.56
2010	405	7,371	18,069	25,845	11.78
2011	453	7,662	18,083	26,198	12.13
2012	420	7,680	17,118	25,218	11.78
2013	398	7,016	16,619	24,033	12.18
2014	446	7,141	17,161	24,748	11.90
2015	408	6,887	16,766	24,061	12.16
2016	448	6,507	16,595	23,550	12.63
2017	470	6,497	16,838	23,805	13.20
2018	456	6,662	15,314	22,432	13.50
2019	470	6,421	14,879	21,770	13.24
2020	346	4,318	10,086	14,750	14.24
2021	361	4,967	11,326	16,654	13.68
2022	385	5,889	13,053	19,327	14.52
2023	405	6,067	12,791	19,263	14.92

Source: DfT STATS19, National Travel Survey and Office for National Statistics population data

3. How far do pedestrians travel?

The National Travel Survey (NTS) which provides the number of trips and average distance travelled by person per year for English residents. This is used to derive casualty rates per mile travelled for pedestrians, which also use the Great Britain population figure to estimate total distance walked each year.

4. Casualty rates per mile travelled

The pedestrian casualty rate has fallen for all severities in 2023 compared to 2004.

The overall casualty rate decreased by 54%. The fatality rate decreased by 49% compared to a 49% reduction for serious injuries and a 56% reduction for slight injuries.

Chart 2: Index of casualty rates of pedestrian casualties by severity, GB: 2004 to 2023 (Index 2004=100)

Table 2: Casualty rates of pedestrian casualties by severity per billion miles walked, GB: 2004 to 2023

Year	Killed	Serious	Slight	All
2004	54	802	1,930	2,786
2005	55	773	1,882	2,710
2006	53	720	1,678	2,451
2007	54	738	1,726	2,517
2008	47	699	1,610	2,356
2009	40	622	1,479	2,141
2010	34	626	1,534	2,194
2011	37	632	1,491	2,160
2012	36	652	1,453	2,141
2013	33	576	1,364	1,973
2014	37	600	1,442	2,079
2015	34	566	1,379	1,979
2016	35	515	1,314	1,864
2017	36	492	1,276	1,803
2018	34	493	1,134	1,661
2019	35	485	1,124	1,644
2020	24	303	708	1,036
2021	26	363	828	1,217
2022	27	405	899	1,331
2023	27	407	857	1,291

5. Sex and age comparisons

Between 2019 and 2023, 57% of pedestrian casualties were male and 42% female.

There are 1.4 times more male than female pedestrian casualties overall. This compares to 1.7 times more for 30 to 39 year olds, 1.8 times more for children aged under 12 and 0.8 times more for people over 70 - the only age group in which female casualties outnumber males.

Chart 3: Percentage of pedestrian KSI casualties, by sex and age, GB: 2019 to 2023

6. Which vehicles are involved in collisions with pedestrians?

Between 2019 and 2023, most pedestrian fatalities occurred in a single vehicle collisions involving a car (1099).

However, the highest proportion of casualties that are fatal occur in 1 vehicle collisions involving an HGV (16.7%). The second highest proportion (10.5%) occurred in collisions when 3 or more vehicles were involved.

Table 3: Pedestrian casualties in reported road collisions by severity showing other vehicles involved GB: 2019 to 2023

Vehicles	Fatalities	Serious injuries	Slight injuries	All casualties	% Fatalities
1 pedal cycle	12	690	1,287	1,989	0.6%
1 motorcycle	49	1,177	2,534	3,760	1.3%
1 car	1,099	19,909	46,264	67,272	1.6%
1 bus or coach	99	930	1,926	2,955	3.4%
1 light goods vehicle	163	1,953	4,240	6,356	2.6%
1 heavy goods vehicle	188	407	534	1,129	16.7%
1 other vehicle	43	699	1,617	2,359	1.8%
2 vehicles involved	197	1,485	3,146	4,828	4.1%
3 or more other vehicles involved	117	414	585	1,116	10.5%
Total	1,967	27,663	62,134	91,764	2.1%

7. Time of day of collisions

The weekday peak time for pedestrian KSIs is from 3pm to 6pm. By contrast, the peak is later in the early evening at weekends.

Chart 4: Reported pedestrian KSIs by hour of day and day of week, GB: 2019 to 2023

8. What type of road?

Chart 5 shows that between 2019 and 2023, 66% of pedestrian fatalities occurred on urban roads compared to 87% of all pedestrian casualties. 5% of pedestrian fatalities occurred on motorways. This would be people outside their vehicles whether they are moving at the time or not.

Chart 5: Percentage of pedestrian casualties, by urban or rural classification and severity, GB: 2019 to 2023

In this report, urban roads are defined as those within an area of population of 10,000 or more in England and Wales or more than 3,000 in Scotland - roads outside of these areas are classified as rural (Department for Transport types of road definitions).

9. Vehicle movement on the road

A majority of pedestrian fatalities (57%) do not occur at or within 20m of a junction compared to 46% of serious injuries (adjusted). However, 30% of fatalities occur at a junction compared to 39% of serious injuries (adjusted). Pedestrian fatalities at roundabouts represent 3% of all fatalities in contrast to 4% of serious injuries (adjusted).

Table 4: Percentage of pedestrian KSI casualties by severity and junction detail where the collision occurred, GB: 2019 to 2023

Junction	Fatalities	Serious	Slight	All Casualties
Not at junction or within 20 metres	57.1%	46.0%	44.8%	45.4%
T, Y or staggered junction	24.5%	30.4%	30.2%	30.1%
Crossroads	7.2%	8.3%	7.6%	7.8%
Other junction	5.1%	6.8%	7.2%	7.1%
Roundabout	1.8%	2.7%	2.8%	2.8%
Private drive or entrance	1.6%	1.8%	2.1%	2.0%
Junction - more than 4 arms (not roundabout)	0.6%	1.8%	1.7%	1.7%
Unknown	0.0%	0.5%	1.7%	1.3%
Mini-roundabout	0.9%	1.0%	1.2%	1.2%
Slip road	1.3%	0.6%	0.5%	0.6%

10. Contributory factors in collisions

Contributory factors provide an insight into how and why collisions occur. The factors are largely subjective as they reflect the opinion of the reporting police officer. They are assigned quickly at the occurrence of the collision and often without extensive investigations and so should be interpreted with caution. They are likely to be affected in part by preconceptions police officers have of certain vehicle groups. A maximum of 6 factors can be recorded for each collision.

Table 5 shows the 10 most common contributory factors that have been allocated to pedestrians that have been involved in fatal or serious collisions (FSC) (between 2019 and 2023) and contrasts this with the number allocated to vehicles in these collisions.

The 3 most common contributory factor assigned to pedestrians were ‘failed to look properly’ followed by ‘pedestrian careless, reckless or in a hurry’ and ‘failure to judge vehicle’s path or speed’.

Table 5: Contributory factors allocated to pedestrians and vehicles involved in fatal or serious collisions with pedestrian, GB: 2019 to 2023

Pedestrian contributory factor	Count
Pedestrian failed to look properly	8,832
Pedestrian careless, reckless or in a hurry	3,279
Pedestrian failed to judge vehicle`s path or speed	2,912
Pedestrian impaired by alcohol	1,872
Crossing road masked by stationary or parked vehicle	1,832
Pedestrian wearing dark clothing at night	1,307
Dangerous action in carriageway (eg. playing)	1,071
Pedestrian wrong use of pedestrian crossing facility	990
Pedestrian disability or illness, mental or physical	663
Pedestrian impaired by drugs (illicit or medicinal)	367

The 3 most common contributory factor assigned to vehicles involved in collisions with pedestrians were ‘failed to look properly’ followed by ‘driver or rider careless, reckless or in a hurry’ and ‘failure to judge other person’s path or speed’.

Vehicle contributory factor	Count
Driver or rider failed to look properly	6,006
Driver or rider careless, reckless or in a hurry	2,465
Driver or rider failed to judge other person`s path or speed	1,522
Exceeding speed limit	991
Stationary or parked vehicle(s)	815
Aggressive driving	801
Poor turn or manoeuvre	798
Loss of control	643
Dazzling sun	630
Travelling too fast for conditions	539

11. Further information

Further information on road collisions and casualties are available from Road Safety Statistics.

Published tables on casualties in reported road collisions are available.

Non-fatal casualties since 2016 have been affected by a large number of police forces changing their reporting systems which has had a large impact on the classification of injuries recorded. Further details of the adjustment for this are in the severity adjustment guidance.

Road collisions and safety statistics guidance including accompanying notes and definitions are available.

Personal travel statistics within Great Britain covering English residents is available from The National Travel Survey.

Road traffic statistics provide estimates of the vehicle miles travelled each year in Great Britain by vehicle type, road category and region.

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14. Contact details

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