Road safety charities say road fatalities are ‘not decreasing fast enough’
Thousands of pedestrians were hurt or killed on roads in London last year, new figures reveal. It comes as road safety charities said road fatalities are not decreasing “fast enough” and urged the Government to take action to tackle dangerous driving.
The Department for Transport’s finalised road safety statistics show 24,042 casualties were recorded on roads in London in 2024, including 4,451 pedestrians.
The other casualties included 7,835 car occupants, 4,864 cyclists, 5,145 motorcyclists, 387 van occupants and 38 HGV occupants. There were also 1,029 bus occupants and 293 other road users included in the figure. Overall, there were 110 people, including 61 pedestrians, killed on London roads last year.
Across Britain, there were 128,272 casualties reported in 2024, a decline of 4 per cent from 2023. Fatalities declined 1 per cent, with 1,602 deaths reported last year – the equivalent of four people killed in crashes each day.
RAC road safety spokesman Rod Dennis said: “Britain might still have an enviable safety record compared to some other countries, but the simple fact is that casualties aren’t falling at a fast enough rate any more. Casualty reduction targets would be one way of giving the whole topic of road safety national focus, as would fresh interventions that could help remove the riskiest drivers from our roads – for instance, introducing alcohol interlocks to stop drink-drivers from reoffending, and steps taken to reduce instances of excessive speeding.”
He added: “The Government has long trailed its forthcoming road safety strategy, so we look forward to seeing how this can bring casualty numbers down further.”
Nicholas Lyes, director of policy and standards at road safety charity IAM RoadSmart, said: “These figures demonstrate a troubling lack of progress in bringing down fatal and serious injuries on our road network. So much so Great Britain has slipped down the international comparison table, ranking fourth compared to third in 2023.”
The report’s final analysis show Britain had an estimated 4.7 road fatalities per billion miles travelled in 2024.
Rebecca Guy, senior policy manager at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: “These figures are a stark reminder that progress on road safety has stalled, and lives are being lost unnecessarily. It is essential that the upcoming national road safety strategy contains the measures and resources needed to prevent road traffic collisions.”
She added: “Road death is preventable, and with evidence-based solutions, we can reverse this decade of stagnation.”
A DfT spokesperson said: “Every death on our roads is a tragedy and the safety of our roads is an absolute priority for this Government. We’ve been clear that more needs to be done in this space, which is why we are committed to delivering a new road safety strategy – the first in over a decade – and will set out next steps on this in due course.”
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