The number of people killed or injured in road accidents in Scotland fell to its lowest level for more than 50 years last year, according to statistics released yesterday.
The number of people killed or injured in road accidents in Scotland fell to its lowest level for more than 50 years last year, according to statistics released yesterday.
The provisional figures published by the Department for Transport showed that 282 people died on Scotland's roads in 2007, a 10% decrease from 2006. Another 2315 were seriously injured, a 12% drop year-on-year.
Nationwide statistics show that the total number of people killed on British roads fell to its lowest level since records began in 1926. Some 30,720 people were killed or seriously injured in 2007, a 4% decrease from the previous year.
Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson said the Scottish Government would work to help reduce the toll in Scotland further. "These are encouraging statistics and I welcome the fall," he said. "However, we cannot and will not be complacent.
"It is clear that we can all do more to get our road safety messages across to people of all ages and all driving abilities.
"Road fatalities may be at their lowest level for more than 50 years, but 282 people dying on our roads is still 282 too many."
He added that the government was working with road safety experts to produce a Road Safety Strategy for Scotland which will be published later this year. He also said that planned changes to the driving test would be "important tools in our efforts to reduce accidents".
A full breakdown of the Scottish statistics will be published on Monday but the national figures showed that the number of fatalities had dropped 7% from 2006 to reach 2943 last year. Deaths and serious injuries were down in all categories of road user except motorcyclists. The number of motorcyclists killed or seriously injured rose 4% to 6,737.
A total of 121 children died on the roads last year, 20% fewer than in 2006. Some 644 pedestrians were killed last year, a 5% drop.
Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said: "These figures are extremely encouraging. But these figures make us determined to do even more. Far too many people are still dying and we will continue to do everything we can to improve road safety and further reduce the numbers of people killed or injured."
When data was first published in 1926, 4886 people were killed. Road deaths peaked in 1941 at 9169 people, although the war-time blackout would have contributed to the high figure. The post-war death toll started rising in the 1960s, reaching as high as 7985 in 1966.
In 2000, the UK Government announced a new road safety strategy and set new targets for reducing the number of casualties by 2010.
Neil Greig, director of the Institute of Advanced Motorists Motoring Trust, said: "There is no place for complacency in road safety. But national targets and the concentration on the simple message of education, enforcement and engineering have delivered safer roads than ever before.
"The challenge now is to drive down these figures even further by targeting known high risks such as rural single carriageways, young drivers and those who drive for work.
"Further reductions in deaths on the road will not come cheap and government must allocate more funding to road engineering schemes and encourage drivers to treat driving as a skill for life."
AA president Edmund King added: "The battle to cut death and injury on the road must go on and it will get tougher to reduce the numbers still further. In the short term much can be done by better enforcing the drink-drive, seatbelt, and mobile phone laws."
