‘Heartbreaking’ rise in children killed on roads
Campaigners are demanding tougher road safety measures after the number of children killed or seriously injured in collisions on major roads doubled in 12 months.
Eighty-one children aged 0-15 were left with critical or fatal injuries on motorways and A roads in 2016, up more than 100 per cent on the year before.
Fatalities involving people of all ages increased by three per cent from 224 to 231 while the overall number of people killed or seriously injured rose 12.4 per cent to 2,005.
However, the number of minor injuries inflicted reduced slightly to 14,228.
Joshua Harris, director of campaigns for road safety charity Brake, described the increase in child casualties as “heartbreaking”.
Last year saw 39 male children aged 0-15 killed or seriously injured on major roads, a 95 per cent increase on 2015, while the number of female victims in the same age group rose 110 per cent to 42.
The casualty rate also rose by 30 per cent for 16-19-year-old males and by 25 per cent for females.
A total of 10,158 road traffic injury collisions were recorded, down 1.4 per cent.
These incidents led to 16,233 casualties, and have an estimated combined cost of £3.3 million.
Part of the rise has been attributed to the adoption of the collision recording and sharing (CRASH) system by more than half of English forces since 2015.
The Metropolitan Police Service also switched to the case overview preparation application (COPA) in September 2016.
Between them, these recording systems are believed to have added between five and 15 per cent to the total number of serious injuries on official statistics.
Mr Harris said: “The failure of Highways England to meet their overall road safety targets for 2016 and reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on our motorways and major A roads is sadly symptomatic of the wider stagnation in road safety in the UK.
“We need the urgent introduction of proven measures to arrest this slide and call upon the Government to act to improve road safety now.
“A zero-tolerance approach to drink-driving, safer speeds, stricter enforcement and much greater investment in roads policing are all vital to arrest this disturbing decline in road safety.”