Accredited official statistics

Reported road casualties in Great Britain: pedestrian factsheet, 2022

Published 28 September 2023

This factsheet presents trends from 2004 onwards. However, grouped data for years from 2018 to 2022 is used widely in this publication in order to allow sufficiently robust analysis by age, sex and other variables.

This factsheet gives an overview and key statistics on pedestrians involved in road collisions in Great Britain as reported by or to the police. This factsheet examines the main trends in collisions involving pedestrians and the casualties involved.

Pedestrians are one of the vulnerable user groups. They are not protected by a vehicle body in the same way car users are, and tend to be harder for drivers to see on the road. They are, therefore, particularly susceptible to injuries.

Data in this factsheet is from 2004 onwards. Serious and slight injuries have been adjusted to account for changes in the severity reporting systems. More information on the change and adjustment process is available in the severity adjustment guidance.

It should be noted that it has been long known that a considerable percentage of non-fatal casualties are not reported to the police. This should be borne in mind when analysing and interpreting the data.

Main findings

Between 2004 and 2022:

• fatalities were down 43% from 671 to 385

• serious injuries (adjusted) decreased by 42%

• pedestrian traffic (distance walked) increased by 16%

Averaged over the period 2018 to 2022:

• an average of 8 pedestrians died and 109 were seriously injured (adjusted) per week in reported road collisions

• a majority of pedestrian fatalities (57%) do not occur at or within 20m of a junction compared to 46% of all seriously injured (adjusted) casualties

• nearly three in five (58%) of pedestrian fatalities were in collisions involving a single car

• 29% of pedestrian fatalities occurred on rural roads compared to 12% of all pedestrian casualties

• 58% of pedestrian killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties were male

• the most common contributory factor allocated to pedestrians in fatal or serious collisions (FSC) with another vehicle was ‘Pedestrian failed to look properly’. The most common factor allocated to the vehicles involved was ‘Driver or rider failed to look properly’

Pedestrian traffic and reported casualties

In 2022, 385 pedestrians were killed in Great Britain, whilst 5,901 were reported to be seriously injured (adjusted) and 13,041 slightly injured (adjusted).

Table 1 and chart 1 show that pedestrian traffic (measured by distance walked) has risen between 2004 and 2022 whilst fatalities, serious and slight injuries have fallen.

Between 2021 and 2022, pedestrian fatalities increased by 7% while pedestrian traffic (distance walked) increased by 6%.

Chart 1: Index of pedestrian traffic (distance walked) and reported pedestrian casualties by severity, GB: 2004 to 2022 (Index 2004=100)

Table 1: Number of reported pedestrian casualties by severity and traffic (pedestrian billion miles walked), GB: 2004 to 2022

Year	Killed	Serious	Slight	All	Traffic
2004	671	10,117	24,093	34,881	12.52
2005	671	9,565	23,045	33,281	12.28
2006	675	9,166	21,141	30,982	12.64
2007	646	8,905	20,640	30,191	11.99
2008	572	8,502	19,408	28,482	12.09
2009	500	7,866	18,521	26,887	12.56
2010	405	7,417	18,023	25,845	11.78
2011	453	7,708	18,037	26,198	12.13
2012	420	7,724	17,074	25,218	11.78
2013	398	7,056	16,579	24,033	12.17
2014	446	7,181	17,121	24,748	11.90
2015	408	6,922	16,731	24,061	12.16
2016	448	6,537	16,565	23,550	12.64
2017	470	6,531	16,804	23,805	13.22
2018	456	6,696	15,280	22,432	13.54
2019	470	6,444	14,856	21,770	13.27
2020	346	4,330	10,074	14,750	14.32
2021	361	4,978	11,315	16,654	13.76
2022	385	5,901	13,041	19,327	14.52

Source: DfT STATS19, National Travel Survey and Office for National Statistics population data

How far do pedestrians travel?

the National Travel Survey (NTS) which provides the number of trips and average distance travelled by person per year for English residents. This is used to derive casualty rates per mile travelled for pedestrians, which also use the Great Britain population figure to estimate total distance walked each year.

Casualty rates per mile travelled

The pedestrian casualty rate has fallen for all severities in 2022 compared to 2004.

The overall casualty rate decreased by 52%. The fatality rate decreased by 51% compared to a 50% reduction for serious injuries and a 53% reduction for slight injuries.

Chart 2: Index of casualty rates of pedestrian casualties by severity, GB: 2004 to 2022 (Index 2004=100)

Table 2: Casualty rates of pedestrian casualties by severity per billion miles walked, GB: 2004 to 2022

Year	Killed	Serious	Slight	All
2004	54	808	1,924	2,786
2005	55	779	1,876	2,710
2006	53	725	1,672	2,451
2007	54	743	1,721	2,517
2008	47	703	1,605	2,356
2009	40	626	1,475	2,141
2010	34	630	1,530	2,194
2011	37	636	1,487	2,160
2012	36	656	1,450	2,141
2013	33	580	1,362	1,974
2014	37	603	1,439	2,080
2015	34	569	1,376	1,978
2016	35	517	1,310	1,863
2017	36	494	1,271	1,801
2018	34	495	1,129	1,657
2019	35	485	1,119	1,640
2020	24	302	704	1,030
2021	26	362	822	1,210
2022	27	406	898	1,331

Sex and age comparisons

Between 2018 and 2022, 58% of pedestrian casualties were male and 42% female.

There are 1.4 times more male than female pedestrian casualties overall. This compares to 1.8 times more for 30 to 39 year olds, 1.8 times more for children aged under 12 and 0.8 times more for people over 70 - the only age group in which female casualties outnumber males.

Chart 3: Percentage of pedestrian KSI casualties, by sex and age, GB: 2018 to 2022

Which vehicles are involved in collisions with pedestrians?

Between 2018 and 2022, most pedestrian fatalities occurred in a single vehicle collisions involving a car (1165).

However, the highest proportion of casualties that are fatal occur in 1 vehicle collisions involving an HGV (16.1%). The second highest proportion (9.7%) occurred in collisions when 3 or more vehicles were involved.

Table 3: Pedestrian casualties in reported road collisions by severity showing other vehicles involved GB: 2018 to 2022

Vehicles	Fatalities	Serious injuries	Slight injuries	All casualties	% Fatalities
1 pedal cycle	9	657	1,292	1,958	0.5%
1 motorcycle	48	1,212	2,638	3,898	1.2%
1 car	1,165	20,557	48,134	69,856	1.7%
1 bus or coach	92	975	2,060	3,127	2.9%
1 light goods vehicle	148	1,888	4,243	6,279	2.4%
1 heavy goods vehicle	198	447	588	1,233	16.1%
1 other vehicle	53	625	1,587	2,265	2.3%
2 vehicles involved	195	1,585	3,402	5,182	3.8%
3 or more other vehicles involved	110	405	620	1,135	9.7%
Total	2,018	28,349	64,566	94,933	2.1%

Time of day of collisions

The weekday peak time for pedestrian KSIs is from 3pm to 6pm. By contrast, the peak is later in the early evening at weekends.

Chart 4: Reported pedestrian KSIs by hour of day and day of week, GB: 2018 to 2022

What type of road?

Chart 5 shows that between 2018 and 2022, 66% of pedestrian fatalities occurred on urban roads compared to 88% of all pedestrian casualties. 5% of pedestrian fatalities occurred on motorways. This would be people outside their vehicles whether they are moving at the time or not.

Chart 5: Percentage of pedestrian casualties, by urban or rural classification and severity, GB: 2018 to 2022

In this report, urban roads are defined as those within an area of population of 10,000 or more in England and Wales or more than 3,000 in Scotland - roads outside of these areas are classified as rural (Department for Transport types of road definitions).

Vehicle movement on the road

A majority of pedestrian fatalities (57%) do not occur at or within 20m of a junction compared to 46% of serious injuries (adjusted). However, 30% of fatalities occur at a junction compared to 39% of serious injuries (adjusted). Pedestrian fatalities at roundabouts represent 3% of all fatalities in contrast to 4% of serious injuries (adjusted).

Table 4: Percentage of pedestrian KSI casualties by severity and junction detail where the collision occurred, GB: 2018 to 2022

Junction	Fatalities	Serious	Slight	All Casualties
Not at junction or within 20 metres	56.7%	46.3%	45.6%	46.0%
T, Y or staggered junction	24.6%	30.9%	30.4%	30.5%
Crossroads	7.4%	8.3%	7.7%	7.9%
Other junction	4.6%	6.3%	6.4%	6.3%
Roundabout	2.6%	2.7%	2.9%	2.8%
Private drive or entrance	1.4%	1.8%	2.1%	2.0%
Junction - more than 4 arms (not roundabout)	0.8%	1.7%	1.7%	1.7%
Unknown	0.0%	0.5%	1.5%	1.2%
Mini-roundabout	0.7%	1.0%	1.2%	1.1%
Slip road	1.1%	0.6%	0.5%	0.6%

Contributory factors in collisions

Contributory factors provide an insight into how and why collisions occur. The factors are largely subjective as they reflect the opinion of the reporting police officer. They are assigned quickly at the occurrence of the collision and often without extensive investigations and so should be interpreted with caution. They are likely to be affected in part by preconceptions police officers have of certain vehicle groups. A maximum of 6 factors can be recorded for each collision.

Table 5 shows the 10 most common contributory factors that have been allocated to pedestrians that have been involved in fatal or serious collisions (FSC) (between 2018 and 2022) and contrasts this with the number allocated to vehicles in these collisions.

The 3 most common contributory factor assigned to pedestrians were ‘failed to look properly’ followed by ‘pedestrian careless, reckless or in a hurry’ and ‘failure to judge vehicle’s path or speed’.

Table 5: Contributory factors allocated to pedestrians and vehicles involved in fatal or serious collisions with pedestrian, GB: 2018 to 2022

Pedestrian contributory factor	Count
Pedestrian failed to look properly	9,685
Pedestrian careless, reckless or in a hurry	3,475
Pedestrian failed to judge vehicle`s path or speed	3,190
Pedestrian impaired by alcohol	2,077
Crossing road masked by stationary or parked vehicle	2,035
Pedestrian wearing dark clothing at night	1,398
Dangerous action in carriageway (eg. playing)	1,154
Pedestrian wrong use of pedestrian crossing facility	1,033
Pedestrian disability or illness, mental or physical	738
Pedestrian impaired by drugs (illicit or medicinal)	404

The 3 most common contributory factor assigned to vehicles involved in collisions with pedestrians were ‘failed to look properly’ followed by ‘driver or rider careless, reckless or in a hurry’ and ‘failure to judge other person’s path or speed’.

Vehicle contributory factor	Count
Driver or rider failed to look properly	6,156
Driver or rider careless, reckless or in a hurry	2,364
Driver or rider failed to judge other person`s path or speed	1,517
Exceeding speed limit	939
Stationary or parked vehicle(s)	882
Aggressive driving	840
Poor turn or manoeuvre	830
Loss of control	667
Dazzling sun	652
Travelling too fast for conditions	562

Further information

Further information on road collisions and casualties are available from Road Safety Statistics.

Published tables on casualties in reported road collisions are available.

Non-fatal casualties since 2016 have been affected by a large number of police forces changing their reporting systems which has had a large impact on the classification of injuries recorded. Further details of the adjustment for this are in the severity adjustment guidance.

Road collisions and safety statistics guidance including accompanying notes and definitions are available.

Personal travel statistics within Great Britain covering English residents is available from The National Travel Survey.

Road traffic statistics provide estimates of the vehicle miles travelled each year in Great Britain by vehicle type, road category and region.

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Contact details

Road safety statistics

Email roadacc.stats@dft.gov.uk