UK road deaths: four people die every day and it’s only getting worse

A “tragedy” has been declared as the number of people killed on UK roads rose slightly last year, with as many as four people losing their lives every day in traffic accidents.

New Government provisional estimates show that 29,537 people were killed or seriously injured across the UK’s road network in 2024, with as many as 1,633 losing their lives.

The one per cent increase in deaths over the previous year is the highest figure since before the pandemic, with men accounting for three quarters of all fatalities.

 An alarming nine per cent spike in motorcyclists losing their lives has partly fueled the uplift in deaths. This comes in stark contrast to the figure for 2023, when motorcyclist deaths fell by six per cent.

Overall, 2024 saw fewer people injured (the total number dipped by around three per cent compared with 2023). But the Government website states that “a considerable proportion of non-fatal casualties are not known to the police, as hospital, survey and compensation claims data all indicate a higher number of casualties than those recorded in police collision data”.

The AA’s president, Edmund King, dubbed every death and injury “a tragedy”. He added: “If this level of loss was experienced on any other form of transport, there would be a national inquiry and public outcry. Yet, for some reason, we seem to accept this as the risk of moving around our communities. This should not be the case.”

So why, in an age of advanced safety systems, Euro NCAP scores and stricter traffic laws are we beginning to see deaths creep up? 

There has been rising concern surrounding the failure to wear a seatbelt – in 2022, one in five fatalities involved someone not wearing one – as well as drug-driving. Police sources have told Auto Express that they are now beginning to catch more people driving under the influence of drugs than they are alcohol, claiming that narcotic use has become “normalised” in recent years.

The Government announced last year that it plans to draft the first new road safety strategy in more than a decade, which could see the introduction of a new Road Safety Investigation Branch (RSIB). IAM RoadSmart’s director of policy and standards, Nicholas Lyes, said its publication “can’t come soon enough”.

Auto Express asked the Department for Transport whether it would publish the strategy before the end of 2025, but has yet to receive a response.

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