1,695 fatalities on British roads in 2022 shows provisional DfT figures

There were 1,695 fatalities on Britain’s roads in 2022, provisional figures from the Department for Transport show.

This is 3% lower than the figure for 2019, the “most recent equivalent pre-pandemic year”.

An additional 28,101 people were seriously injured, also a 3% reduction on 2019.

The total casualty figure was 136,002.

Of those who died:

• 781 were car occupants

• 354 were motorcyclists

• 85 were pedal cyclists

• 376 were pedestrians

• 64 were goods vehicle occupants

• 4 were bus or coach occupants

• 30 were occupants of other or unknown vehicles.

Eleven e-scooter riders were killed in 2022 whilst one person was killed after being in a collision with an e-scooter. Another 421 people were seriously injured in an e-scooter collision. In total, e-scooter collisions caused 1,458 casualties, 401 of them aged 19 or less, 14 of them aged 9 or less.

According to the Department for Transport: “Around half (564) of the e-scooter user casualties recorded were estimated to have occurred outside trial areas. The remaining 553 occurred within or close to trial areas at a time a trial was in operation. However, some of these casualties will have been riding private scooters, so the number of rental scooter casualties will be lower than this.”

Steve Gooding, Director of the RAC Foundation, said: “This latest data shows why we need to take a new approach to tackling road safety and the already-announced plans to create a road safety investigation branch – the pilot for which we led – will help achieve that.

“As the e-scooter trials rumble on these figures show that the vehicles are in frequent use – and apparently all-too frequent collisions – across the whole country. Real life is very quickly getting ahead of legislation.

“As ministers ponder the future of these devices it is important councils are better funded to keep highway surfaces up to scratch so all road users – not least those on two wheels – don’t fall foul of the rash of potholes which remain far too common.”