RTCs (FOI ref: 1292A/24)

Request

1) Please could you provide statistics for the number of fatalities in road traffic accidents during the following time periods: (1st August 2021- 31st July 2022, 1st August 2022- 31st July 2023, 1st August 2023- 31st July 2024)

2) Please could you provide statistics for the number of injuries in road traffic incidents during the following time periods: (1st August 2021- 31st July 2022, 1st August 2022- 31st July 2023, 1st August 2023- 31st July 2024)

Response

Please find our response below.

For further information regarding definitions of the levels of seriousness, please visit the Gov.uk site at the following link: 

Guide to severity adjustments for reported road casualties Great Britain - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) 

In the West Midlands, we have set the goal to reduce road death and serious injury to zero under Vision Zero.  

We are working with communities and partners and are aware of their entirely understandable concern.

Our partnership sees us work with local councils, charities the West Midlands Combined Authority and others to achieve safer roads for everyone. 

Our proactive approach involves focused operations in key areas, tackling the “fatal four” and preventing harm to the most vulnerable road users.  The fatal four includes: 

Speeding

Drink and drug driving

Using a mobile phone while driving

Not wearing a seatbelt

On Tuesday this week, we carried out an operation in Birmingham, and dealt with 40 drivers for speeding, three for not wearing seatbelts, and two for using mobile phones. 

While it’s obviously concerning that so many motorists think it’s acceptable to put other users at risk in this way, these operations show our determination to tackle the problem.

We are ensuring our Traffic officers are a visible presence on the roads 24/7, and we’ve invested heavily in our team which reviews dash and helmet cam footage from the public.

Please note that this data should be interpreted with caution. Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that this data has been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request may be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting the data. 

The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of data which has relevance to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.

If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.