§ Mr. WigginTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the percentage of the elderly involved in road accidents in the last available year; and what plans the Government have to reduce these numbers. [68525]
§ Mr. JamiesonInformation is not available about the total number or percentage of elderly people involved in road injury accidents. However, a provisional estimate for 2001 is that around 10 per cent. of those killed or injured in road accidents in Great Britain were aged 60 or over.
The Government has set out a wide range of proposals for reducing road traffic casualties significantly by 2010, including casualties among the elderly, in the Road Safety Strategy document, "Tomorrow's Roads-Safer For Everyone", copies of which are in the Libraries of the House.
§ Mr. WigginTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent representations he has received on road accidents, with specific reference to the elderly. [68475]
§ Mr. JamiesonMy right hon. Friend receives many representations about all aspects of road accidents, some of which relate to elderly road users.
§ Mr. WigginTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many road accidents there were in each region; and what was the regional total as a percentage of the total, in each of the last five years. [68473]
§ Mr. JamiesonThe numbers of personal injury road accidents in each region are shown in the table:
Injury road accidents by region: Great Britain1997–20011 Year of accident Government office regions 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 London 38,836 38,258 38,368 37,691 36,741 South East 33,858 33,350 33,047 32,915 32,270 North West 31,967 31,937 30,993 30,917 29,298 Eastern 22,341 22,288 21,788 22,375 21,926 West Midlands 21,570 20,879 21,099 21,391 21,112 Yorkshire & Humberside 21,164 21,591 21,152 20,674 20,326 South West 18,093 18,395 18,629 18,188 18,760 East Midlands 16,665 16,987 16,552 16,563 16,089 North East 8,915 8,700 8,223 8,367 8,136 England 213,409 212,385 209,851 209,081 204,658 Scotland 16,628 16,512 15,304 15,099 14,668 Wales 10,250 10,026 9,893 9,549 9,499 Great Britain 240,287 238,923 235,048 233,729 228,825 1Figures for 2001 are provisional The percentage of personal injury road accidents in each region are shown in the table.
976W
Percentage of injury road accidents by region:GreatBritain1997–20011 Year of accident Government office region 1997 1998 1999 2000 20011 London 16 16 16 16 16 South East 14 14 14 14 14 North West 13 13 13 13 13 Eastern 9 9 9 10 10 West Midlands 9 9 9 9 9 Yorkshire and Humberside 9 9 9 9 9 South West 8 8 8 8 8 East Midlands 7 7 7 7 7 North East 4 4 3 4 4 England 89 89 89 89 89 Scotland 7 7 7 6 6 Wales 4 4 4 4 4 Great Britain 100 100 100 100 100 1Figures for 2001 are provisional
§ Dr. MurrisonTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport in what proportion of(a) road accidents and (b) fatal road accidents excess speed was identified as a major factor on (i) all roads and (ii) minor single-carriageway roads in each year since 1982. [68225]
§ Mr. JamiesonThe effect of excess speed on accident causation has been extensively researched based on accident data taken from a number of sources including national road accident statistics. The overall conclusion is that excessive speed, is a contributory factor in about one third of all accidents.
Specific information about particular roads is not held centrally but reference to TRL Report 421 "The effects of drivers' speed on the frequency of road accidents" published in 2000 and TRL Report 511 "The relationship between speed and accidents on rural single-carriageway roads", published in 2002 would provide a fuller explanation of the effects of excess speed on accident causation. Copies of both reports are available in the Library of the House.