Road Accidents in Cardiff are Decreasing
As your reliable mobile mechanic in Cardiff, I was keen to check out The Department of Transport’s new online tool which analyses road accidents on a local level. When I get called out, I want it to be for a minor breakdown.
This new tool is actually pretty cool. Results can be filtered by weather conditions, road speeds and the age of drivers, giving us a picture of how safely we are driving year on year. The data (which excludes Northern Ireland) has been analysed until 2018.
The good news is that road traffic accidents are decreasing in Cardiff. Down from 535 in 2016 to 366 in 2018.
Year Number of Road Accidents in Cardiff
2016 535
2017 480
2018 366
While we don’t know the proportion of male and female car drivers in Cardiff, we do know that almost the same number of female drivers were casualties in road accidents as male drivers; 80 male drivers compared to 75 females. Surprisingly, there was no spike in casualties involving young male car drivers; 8 male driver casualties aged 18-21 in Cardiff in 2018, compared to 10 male drivers aged 48-52. Could black box insurance for young drivers be helping?
While the statistics for car users were generally good compared to elsewhere in the UK, we need to pay more attention to cyclists on our roads. There were 69 male cyclist casualties in Cardiff in 2018 and 14 female cyclists. Concerningly, 14 of those accidents involved cyclists under 16 years of age.
How Does Cardiff Compare to the Rest of the UK?
While we might expect faster roads to be more deadly, the figures actually reveal that roads with a speed limit between 21 and 30mph saw the highest share of fatal crashes (34%). Faster roads, with a limit of 61mph or more, represented only 7% of crashes. The lesson from this is that we can’t be complacent about driving in low-speed areas. Cardiff’s figures were similar to the national average.
Overall, although two-thirds of fatal road accidents in the UK happen on rural roads, the vast majority of total accidents occur in towns and cities.
Decrease in Casualties
Across the UK, there were 160,597 casualties of all severities in 2018. Sadly, this includes 1,784 fatalities. The annual number of deaths on the road has remained similar since 2012, but 2018’s overall casualties showed a welcome 6% decrease compared to 2017.
Road Accident Fatalities 2018
England – 1,521
Scotland – 160
Wales – 103
Junctions are the Most Dangerous
Across the UK, when it comes to the location of accidents, statistics indicate that staggered or T-junctions were the most dangerous. Staggered or T-junctions saw 29% of all accidents, far ahead of crossroads (9%) and roundabouts (8%).
As your local mobile mechanic, I welcome the steady decrease in accidents and urge everyone to continue to take care around cyclists and stay focused on the road ahead.
Happy driving everyone!
Data taken from the DFT website. https://roadtraffic.dft.gov.uk/custom-downloads/road-accidents
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