12 Statistics relating to Road & Pedestrian Safety
- The first ever pedestrian killed by a motor car was hit at only 4mph. She was Bridget Driscoll who died on 17 August 1896 at Crystal Palace, London.
- An average family car travelling at 35mph will need an extra 21 feet to stop than one travelling at 30mph.
- It is not safer to drive faster at night. Casualty rates are double that during daylight hours due to higher speeds because of less traffic, higher alcohol consumption, tiredness and darkness.
- If you hit a cyclist or pedestrian at 35mph rather than 30mph, the force of the impact increases by more than a third.
- Traffic is the biggest single killer of 12-16 year olds. In 2002, 35 teenagers aged 12-15 were killed as pedestrians on the roads and statistics show that they are twice as likely to be knocked down as toddlers.
- Motorcyclists represent 1% of traffic but suffer 19% of deaths and serious injuries.
- Pedestrians represent 13% of all road casualties and 23% of all road deaths. 40% who are struck at speeds below 20 mph sustain serious injuries, but this rises to 90% at speeds up to 30 mph.
- A change in the mean speed of traffic will affect collision risk and each reduction in mean speed of 1mph will reduce collision frequency by about 5%
- Seven out of 10 drivers admit to regularly breaking the 30mph speed limit.
- Around two thirds of all accidents in which people are killed or seriously injured happen on roads where the speed limit is 40mph or less.
- If a driver hits a pedestrian at 20 mph, the pedestrian has a 95% chance of survival. At 30 mph the survival chance is 80% and if a driver hits a pedestrian at 40 mph, the pedestrian's survival chances fall to just 10%
- In 2003, 37,215 people were killed or seriously injured in road traffic collisions in Great Britain, of which 4,100 were children under 15 years of age.