Scottish cities
Trends in adult road casualties in selected Scottish cities
Between 1997-2001 and 2015-2019, the rate of adult road casualties per 100,000 population has fallen from 508 to 230 per year, on average, in Glasgow. This constitutes a 55% reduction in the casualty rate.
The adult road-casualty rates in Glasgow and Edinburgh have both decreased over this period. Glasgow had a higher casualty rate than Edinburgh for most of the time period until 2009-2013, when Glasgow's rate dropped below Edinburgh's. Dundee and Aberdeen both had lower casualty rates than either Glasgow or Edinburgh throughout the period.
The casualty rates recorded by the police, via Stats 19, are higher for Glasgow than the rate of hospital admissions (shown below). This reflects the fact that road-accident casualties admitted to hospital represent a subset of all road-accident casualties.
Trends in adult road-traffic accident hospital admissions in selected Scottish cities
Aberdeen has consistently had the highest rate of adult hospital admissions due to road accidents. Glasgow had the second highest rate out of the four major Scottish cities over the time period; its rate dropped by almost a third between 1997-2001 and 2011-2015, and has shown a slight increase since then.
Child (age 5-15) road casualties in selected Scottish cities
Between 1997-2001 and 2015-2019, the number of child road casualties per 100,000 in Glasgow has fallen dramatically, from 572 to 174, on average. This constitutes an approximate 70% reduction in the child casualty rate. Aberdeen has consistently had the lowest child casualty rate.
The casualty rates recorded by the police (via Stats 19) are higher than the rate of hospital admissions (shown below). This reflects the fact that road-accident casualties admitted to hospital represent a subset of all road-accident casualties.
Child (age 5-15) road-traffic accident hospital admissions in selected Scottish cities
Between 1997-2001 and 2012-2016, Glasgow had the highest rate of child road-traffic accident hospital admissions among the four major Scottish cities, although in recent years Dundee has had a slightly higher rate. Since 1997-2001, Edinburgh has seen a dramatic reduction in the rate of child road-casualty admissions, with its rate being less than half that of Glasgow's in the most recent time period (2015-2019).
Notes
The figures shown are based on two sources:
Stats 19 statistical returns: made by police forces, which cover all accidents in which a vehicle is involved that occur on roads (including footways) and result in personal injury, if they become known to the police. There could be many non-fatal injury accidents which are not reported by the public to the police, and are therefore not counted in these statistics. Further statistics on Stats 19-based road-traffic accidents and casualties can be accessed from Transport Scotland publications.
Hospital admission data: These statistics are derived from data collected on discharges from non-obstetric and non-psychiatric acute hospitals (SMR01) in Scotland. The data are based on year of discharge. Relevant hospital episodes have been identified by admission type (emergency hospital admission: SMR01 admission type code 32 - Patient injury - road traffic accident) and by diagnosis (Pedestrian injured in transport accident (V01-V09), Pedal cyclist injured in transport accident (V10-V19), Motorcycle rider injured in transport accident (V20-V29), Car occupant injured in transport accident (V40-V49), Other (any other diagnosis codes recorded)).