Road death numbers revealed to have risen since 2012

The number of people killed on the UK’s roads has risen since 2012, according to newly released government statistics.

There were 1,782 fatalities in 2018 – a fall of 0.6 per cent on 2017’s figure of 1,793 but a 1.6 per cent rise on the 1,754 road deaths recorded in 2012, according to the Department for Transport (DfT).

Police received reports of 25,484 serious injuries in 2018, but that figure can’t be compared against those of previous years because of the new way in which police forces classify injuries.

The DfT says the UK is now in “a period when the fatality numbers are stable and most of the changes relate to random variation”, with certain “one-off causes” and “natural variation” occasionally having an effect.

However, the RAC says the figures highlight a lack of progression in the reduction of deaths on the UK’s roads, and it is calling on new transport secretary Grant Shapps to take urgent action to save lives.

Nicholas Lyes, head of roads policy at the motoring group, said: “These latest road safety statistics make for stark reading. In short, precious little progress has been made in reducing the number of fatalities on our roads for nearly a decade.

“While it’s difficult to know if the removal of road casualty reduction targets and spending cuts in road safety advertising which occurred around this time have played a role here or not, we must now look to the future and hope the government’s latest road safety proposals go some way towards improving things.

“It should now be a priority for the new transport secretary to get these figures back on the right track and prevent more lives being needlessly lost on our roads.”