Road fatalities surge 10%

A new report from the Department for Transport (DfT) has revealed a 10% rise in road fatalities from 2021 to 2022.

It found that there were 1,711 fatalities on UK roads last year, up from 1,558 in 2021.

However, this uptick is partly down to the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, with the 2022 figure actually two per cent down on 2019.

DfT figures found that there were 29,742 killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties in 2022, a decline of three per cent compared to 2019. Meanwhile, there were 135,480 casualties of all severities, a decline of 12% compared to 2019.

This ranks GB fifth out of 38 countries with available data.

The DfT report also shows that 76% of fatalities and 62% of casualties of all severities were male. The age group with the highest number of male fatalities was 30 to 49, with 375 fatalities. For females, the age group with the most fatalities in 2022 was 70 and over with 153 fatalities. The majority of road deaths in Britain occurred on rural roads (59%) while motorways accounted for a much smaller proportion of road fatalities (six per cent).