Road safety is a concern in the UK as data shows an increases in crashes and casualties in 2022 compared with 2021. There were 1,711 people killed in road crashes in the UK in 2022, compared with 1,522 in 2021.
But with 2021 and 2020, the UK did see a drop in vehicle use due to periods of national COVID-19 lockdown according to the data from the UK's Department for Transport.
The latest figures for road casualties in 2022 show a return towards pre-pandemic trends. The figure of 1,711 road deaths represents a drop of 2% compared to 2019, the last year before the pandemic period. And in 2022 there were 29,742 killed or seriously injured (KSI) casualties, a drop of 3% compared to the figures for 2019. In addition there were 135,480 casualties of all severities on UK roads in 2022, a drop of 12% compared to 2019. Of concern though was that there were 5 road fatalities/billion vehicle miles travelled, up 2% compared to 2019.