Figures newly released by Transport Scotland show that more than two hundred people were killed in car accidents in Scotland in 2014, a 16 percent increase on the number killed in 2013.
Worryingly, the same figures show that there was also an increase in the numbers of serious personal injuries caused by car accidents in Scotland during the year, with the figure for this type of casualty rising by two per cent to 1,699.
However, the rise in serious and fatal injuries occurring in car accidents in Scotland is not consistent with the figures detailing the total number of casualties, with the number of all car accident personal injuries down two percent, from 11,504 in 2013 to 11,268 in 2014. This is, in fact, the lowest number ever recorded.
There are other figures which prompt cause for cautious optimism, including a drop in cycling accident injuries and three percent fall in child road accident casualties. However, it is difficult to meet the figures with anything other than disappointment when it is considered that there were rises in the rates of fatal pedestrian injury and fatal motorcycle injury.
The figures must give all interested parties, including important safety campaigners such as road safety charities and personal injury lawyers, renewed commitment to the cause. Above all, they must serve as a reminder to Holyrood that more is to be done if it is to reach its state goals, which include a 40 percent reduction in fatal RTAs and a 55 percent reduction in RTAs which cause serious personal injuries.
For information and advice about claiming compensation for an injury sustained in a car accident in Scotland, contact Thompsons, the leading Scottish personal injury solicitor firm, by clicking here.
