News release 24 September 2015


Wide geographical variation in serious pedestrian injury rates



An analysis published on the website www.pedestriansafety.org.uk has shown a wide variation between local authorities in serious pedestrian casualty rates, with some having rates over four times as high as others. There were also wide variations between police areas.

The analysis used the Department for Transport (DfT) road casualty database for the five years of 2010 to 2014 and population figures published by the Office for National Statistics to calculate rates of reported killed or seriously injured pedestrians per 100,000 population in each area.

The worst five local authorities were
  • City of London (worst)
  • Westminster
  • Liverpool
  • Kensington and Chelsea
  • Blackburn with Darwen

The worst three police areas were
  • Merseyside (worst)
  • Lancashire
  • West Midlands

Some of the variation can be explained as due to a large influx of commuters and/or visitors into some areas such as the City of London, so that the rate per resident population is high, but this cannot explain most of the differences found. The reasons for the residual variation are not clear since the DfT does not publish any assessment of local authority or police service practice, but it seems that there is a wide variation in standards of protection of child and adult pedestrians from motor vehicle danger, with many authorities not following best practice.

The full analyses are available as follows
Local authorities: www.pedestriansafety.org.uk/casualties_by_local_authority.html
Police areas: www.pedestriansafety.org.uk/casualties_by_police_area.html

Notes

The analysis was carried out by Ian Campbell BA BSc MD, who has worked as a statistical consultant since 1993 - see www.iancampbell.co.uk.

Ian Campbell can be contacted via: contact[at]pedestriansafety.org.uk or via 0151 625 1449.