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Fall in number of cyclists killed or seriously injured on Scotland's roads

Serious injuries down, but total number of cyclists injured grows by 10% in 2009

The number of cyclists killed on Scotland’s roads fell by almost half last year, according to new official figures released by the Scottish Government. 

According to the Key 2009 Reported Road Casualty Statistics, which has just been published by the Scottish Government, five cyclists were killed in Scotland last year, down from nine in 2008 but an increase of one on the four recorded a year earlier.

Just under one in five cyclist casualties, 156 in total, were designated as killed or seriously injured during 2009, a 4% drop on the previous year.

The figures do show, however, that there has been a rise in the total number of accidents involving cyclists, including those not resulting in death or serious injury, which rose by 10% last year to stand at 803.

Nevertheless, the data represent a vast improvement from the picture in the late 199os. Between 1994 and 1998, an annual average of 1,283 cyclists were injured in Scotland, with 249 of those classed as killed or seriously injured, 11 of them losing their lives.

As elsewhere in the UK, people in Scotland are being encouraged to become more active through undertaking forms of exercise such as cycling, so the fact that the number of people killed or seriously injured while cycling falling at a time when more people are taking to their bikes is welcome news.
 

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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DNAse | 14 years ago
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These numbers and absolutely meaningless, unless we include a measure of the number of cycle trips or total time spent cycling in Scotland. If cyclist injuries have increased 10% but time spent cycling has increased by say 20% then we can conclude that conditions are actually safer for cyclists despite the increase in absolute number of injuries. However if cycle KSIs have decreased by 4% but time spent cycling has decreased by say 6% then we can say that conditions are in fact less safe for cyclists.

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Roadkill | 14 years ago
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Good news... though I think that the designation 'killed or seriously injured' might be better as 2 categories...

or expanded to killed or not killed - which would save a few bob on bean counters at the Scottish Government  3

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Simon_MacMichael | 14 years ago
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There's obviously no discussion of it in the official stats, but we at road.cc towers are wondering how much of that rise in less serious injuries might be down to road rash sustained when the Etape Caledonia was sabotaged last year...  39

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