Top 10 facts about road safety

This has been Road Safety Week, with the theme Drive Less, Live More

THIS has been Road Safety Week, with the theme Drive Less, Live More. For full information and safety tips, go to www.roadsafetyweek.org.uk.

 

1. Every day, on average, five people are killed and 64 seriously injured on UK roads.

2. Almost five times as many died on the roads in 1966 with a peacetime peak of 21.9 a day.

3. Around the world traffic accidents kill more than 1.25 million people a year and injure 50 million.

 



The earliest recorded use of the phrase “road safety” was in 1906



 



Around the world traffic accidents kill more than 1.25 million people a year and injure 50 million



45 per cent of fatalities on UK roads are car drivers or passengers; 25 per cent are pedestrians

 

4. Road accidents are the leading cause of death around the world for people aged 15-29.

5. 45 per cent of fatalities on UK roads are car drivers or passengers; 25 per cent are pedestrians.

6. Per mile travelled, however, the most dangerous form of transport is motorcycles with 112.3 deaths per billion miles travelled compared with 2.0 deaths per billion miles for people who go by car.

7. The first pedestrian killed by a car in the UK was Bridget Driscoll, 44, of Croydon in 1896…

 

Every day, on average, five people are killed and 64 seriously injured on UK roads

8. …though curiously, her almost namesake, Bridget O’Driscoll was a Titanic survivor in 1912.

9. Pedestrian crossings were introduced in 1934. Their black-and-white stripes were not added until in 1951.

10. The earliest recorded use of the phrase “road safety” was in 1906 in a book by Henry C Pearson entitled Rubber Tires And All About Them.