§ Mrs. Ann WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, upon what information he based his recent statement that the three main causes of road deaths were drunken drivers, dangerous drivers and motor cyclists.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyA comma appeared in the press reports after the word 'drivers'. The point I was making was that the main cause of road deaths are drunk drivers, dangerous drivers and dangerous motor cyclists. We know from coroners' reports that alcohol is a key factor in about a third of road deaths.
Accident causation studies show that human error, resulting in dangerous driving is a prime factor in 70 per cent of accidents and a factor in 95 per cent.
§ Mrs. Ann WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many and what percentage of all road deaths in the latest year for which figures are available involved(a) motor cycles, (b) dangerous drivers and (c) drunken drivers.
§ Mr. Peter Bottomley(a) In 1987 about 17 per cent. of road deaths, 870 out of 5,125, occurred in accidents that involved motor cyclists.
(b) As cause of accident is not collected it is not possible to determine from the available data how many accidents involved dangerous driving.
(c) During 1986, the latest year for which complete drink-drive figures are available, it is estimated that 950 out of the 5,382 road deaths, that is, nearly 18 per cent., occurred in accidents where at least one driver was over the legal alcohol limit. Some of these accidents also involved motor cycles and therefore will be included in the previous figure.