Drivers making errors or bad decisions is the biggest contributing factors to road accidents in the UK.
Motoring Research has analysed data published by the Department for Transport, using reports from police officers attending a collision.
We have looked at the latest figures for 2019, which cover some 78,855 accidents attended by the police.
Errors of judgement
Driver error proved a contributory factor in two thirds (66 percent) of all accidents where the police attended. This covers a range of potential mistakes by drivers, with failing to look properly the biggest single error.
Poor behaviour, or a lack of experience, was found in more than one fifth (23 percent) of accidents. Categories recorded here included 16 percent of all crashes attributed to careless or reckless driving, with four percent a result of mistakes by learner drivers.
Speeding, included as part of ‘Injudicious action’, was only found to have played a part in six percent of the accidents recorded. Travelling too fast for the conditions also contributed to six percent of collisions.
Vehicle defects were a notably small occurrence, found to be present in just two percent of all accidents.
Tragically predictable
The factors contributing to fatal accidents are broadly similar, but with some key differences.
Again, driver error was the largest contributory factor to fatal collisions (62 percent), being present in a total of 874 incidents. Not looking properly by the driver was the most prevalent specific cause.
Drivers under the influence of alcohol accounted for six percent of all accidents, but this increased to eight percent of fatalities. The same was true for speeding, rising to become a factor in 15 percent of fatal collisions.
The level of detail found within the Department for Transport data stresses the importance of road safety messages. In 2019, four fatal accidents were attributed to vehicle doors being opened or closed negligently.
Overall improvements, but work to do
It is important to remember that the police cannot always assign a contributing factor to every accident. This means the figures recorded here may be slightly lower than the headline numbers for accidents.
However, the overall pattern demonstrates that driver error and poor decisions are the overwhelming factors at play.
Constant improvements in road safety and vehicle design have seen overall accident numbers fall by almost half (49 percent) in the past two decades.
Yet the proportion of fatal accidents has remained stubbornly static in the same period. They accounted for 1.33 percent of all collisions in 2000, and 1.41 percent in 2019.
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