64. UK ROAD DEATHS AND INJURIES: What are the true figures for injuries and deaths in the UK?

For an Excel spreadsheet, link here:-

www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/Expodata/Spreadsheets/D8986.xls

reports causes of death in England and Wales in 2004. With thanks to Idris Francis.

We need to define, at least broadly, what "accidental death" means in this context. Although for their own reasons the above report distinguishes between such problems as infections, pneumonia etc and "external causes of death and morbidity" within which "accidental death is a subdivision, I consider it appropriate in our context at least to show the figures for such medical problems - if only because catching pneumonia, for example, is invariably accidental
rather than deliberate or inevitable.

You might like to consider these numbers:

Total deaths 514,250

Infectious diseases 5,751

Pneumonia 23,312

External causes 17,561 (Including all accidents below)

Accidents 11,233 (including the following types)

Land transport 3,108

Falls 3,010

Drownings 171

Fire and smoke 308

Accidental poisoning 706

Poisoning (all sorts) 4,551

Suicide 3,451

Assault 1,026


Note that differences of definition between DfT and these records result in minor discrepancies which are not large enough to affect the argument presented here)

On the basis of the above figures, and if we assume that catching infections is a form of accidental death, the following figures emerge:

Deaths due to road transort as proportion of total deaths (3,108/ 514,250) = 0.6%

(interestingly, this is little different from 1850, before the motor car was invented and when few people travelled further than they could walk)

Deaths due to land transport as proportion of accidental deaths (3,108/46,624) = 7% (all external causes, inc catching diseases and pneumonia)

Deaths due to land transport as proportion of accidental deaths 3,108/23,312 = 27% (all external causes, excluding diseases and pneumonia )

Many fewer die from road accidents than from poisoning (3,108 cf 4,555)

Fewer people die on the road than commit suicide (3,108 cf 3,451

Similar numbers die on the roads as from falls (3,108 cf 3,010)

However - while these comparisons show that the chance of dying in a road accident is extremely small, far, far less than catching diseases or pneumonia, substantially less than being poisoned, less than committing suicide and broadly similar to falling.

However - this is very far from the complete picture. I show below the text of an article by Dr. Mark Porter for the Radio Times - disclosing that IN EXCESS OF 65,000 PEOPLE DIE EVERY YEAR in hospitals due to medical error, neglect, food poisoning, infections caught in hospitals - and that was written before the current MRSA and other scandals came to light.

Human nature being what it is of course, the great majority of these deaths in hospitals are not recorded as being due to failings by the hospitals or staff, ie as accidental deaths, but as being due either to the problem which originally resulted in the patient being admitted, or to the problem acquired in hospital.

However, the reality is, that the chance of dying an accidental death lying in a hospital bed is, per hour, somewhere between 200 and 500 times GREATER than being in a car travelling at 70mph on a motorway.

2,538 people were killed on the roads in 2008, and 26,034 were reported to the police as having sustained serious injuries, though great doubt has been case over the injury figure.

The main reason for the fall in road deaths is a 30% drop in traffic between 2007 and 2008 due to the recession. Had there been no fall in traffic, the figure would have been 3,625 deaths.