Road Safety
Road traffic collisions (RTCs) are a major cause of preventable death and morbidity, particularly in younger age groups. A large proportion of road traffic collisions are preventable and can be avoided through improved education, awareness, road infrastructure and vehicle safety. All RTCs involving human death or personal injury occurring on a public highway and notified to the police within 30 days of occurrence are recorded using the STATS19 accident reporting form. There is no obligation or legal reason to report all personal injury collisions to the police, although STATS19 data is the best measure of collisions and casualties available. Some collision types are more likely to be underreported than others, for example pedal cyclist collisions with pedestrians.
Data from the 50 automatic traffic count points monitored by the Department for Transport for the Southampton City area show that traffic on major roads in the city has increased since 2013. A higher volume of traffic generally increases the likelihood of collisions. However, reported road injury collisions in Southampton reduced from 2013 to 2017 and increased slightly from 2017 to 2018.
The reported road casualty rate per billion vehicle miles uses the total number of miles driven on the road network to adjust for differences in the amount of traffic. In 2018, Southampton had 875 casualties per billion vehicle miles travelled on its roads. This was higher than the national rate and highest among Southampton’s comparator Local Authorities.
In 2018, 621 people were recorded as being injured in road collisions on Southampton roads, a 0.3% decrease from 2017. Almost 40% of all reported road casualties involved in collisions during 2016-18 were aged between 16-30 years. During the same period, 49% of cyclist casualties that were killed or seriously injured (KSI) were aged 21-35 and one in four pedestrian KSI casualties were aged under 16 years.
The full report, summary slide set and a data compendium are available below. For more information on crime in Southampton, see the Safe City Strategic Assessment page.