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04/05/2004 Entry: "Road Safety"

15 facts about road safety

1. A half of all road deaths are to car occupants
2.      Pedestrians make up just under a quarter of all road deaths
3.      35% of all pedestrians killed or seriously injured are children under 16 years
4.      Road deaths account for 74% of accidental deaths for young people, aged 15-19 years
5.      Your chances of being killed on a motorcycle are 42 times higher (per billion passenger km) than that as a car passenger and 307 times higher than that as a rail passenger
6.      Over 70% of road crashes happen on built-up (urban) roads, but over a half of road deaths happen on non-built-up (rural) roads
7.      42% of deaths happen in darkness
8.      In 1998, drivers aged 17-21 years made up 7% of all licence holders, but were involved in 15% of injury crashes
9. Mile-for-mile, company car drivers have crash rates 30-50% higher than for comparable private drivers
10. Excess or inappropriate speed is a main or contributory factor in one third of all collisions
11. For every 1% reduction in average traffic speed, crashes reduce by an average of 5% .  This relationship means that even marginal reductions in average speeds can result in major road safety gains. 
12. Impact speed determines the severity of injury, e.g. at 35 mph you are twice as likely to kill someone as you are at 30 mph .  90% of pedestrians hit by a car travelling at 30 mph will be seriously injured. Nearly half of them will be killed. The change from mainly survivable injuries to mainly fatal injuries takes place at speeds of between about 30 and 40 mph.
13. Estimates for 2000 suggest that 6% of all road casualties and 16% of road deaths occurred when someone was driving whilst over the legal limit for alcohol.
14. An estimated 10% of collisions are related to driver fatigue.
15. Vehicle defects are a contributory factor in an estimated 5% of collisions.