Reported road casualties Great Britain: Injury severity within injury-based reporting systems 2021 and 2022
Updated 28 September 2023
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This factsheet presents an initial high-level summary of statistics on injury severity and injury type, for reported road collisions in injury-based reporting systems police forces in Great Britain. The department welcomes feedback on this factsheet and, subject to this, will complete further analysis.
This factsheet is based on data for 2021 and 2022, updating a previous version with data for 2019 and 2020. This includes a period impacted by the national restrictions implemented from March 2020 onwards following the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. More information can be found here in our release The impact of lockdown on reported road casualties in Great Britain.
Introduction
Since 2012, some police forces have begun providing STATS19 road casualty data through injury-based reporting systems, most commonly CRaSH (Collision Recording and SHaring system). Within injury-based reporting systems, casualty severity data is determined by the most severe injury sustained.
This has provided 2 new variables that have not previously been published, most severe injury sustained and a more specific casualty severity variable. The figure below shows how the traditional severity-based assessment of casualties as killed, serious and slight map to each injury-based reporting system casualty severity level and the associated injuries (a copy in table format is available in related guidance). This classification was informed by research commissioned by the department.
Figure 1: Injury-based classification of severity
This analysis is based on data for 26 police forces using the CRaSH system in 2022. Although the Metropolitan police also used an injury-based system over this period, the data was not considered to be sufficiently consistent for inclusion. More details are contained within the caveats section. The full list of forces using injury-based systems in 2022 can be found in our guidance on injury based reporting and severity adjustments.
The data therefore does not represent all casualties in Great Britain, and may not be representative of all police forces. This should be kept in mind when interpreting the results.
Casualty severity - overall
There were 73,920 casualties reported within injury-based reporting system police forces in 2022, an increase from 66,236 casualties in 2021. This reflects both an increase in casualties in 2022 compared to 2021, as well as the impact of one additional force being included in the analysis. Table 1 shows the breakdown of these by casualty severity, including the breakdown of serious casualties into very serious, moderately serious and less serious. The proportions of casualties of each severity were broadly similar to those in 2019 and 2020, with the majority being slight casualties.
Table 1: Number and proportion of casualties of each severity: injury-based reporting system forces 2021 and 2022
| Casualty severity | Casualties in 2021 | % of all 2021 casualties | Casualties in 2022 | % of all 2022 casualties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Killed | 927 | 1.4 | 1,097 | 1.5 |
| Very Serious | 2,192 | 3.3 | 2,712 | 3.7 |
| Moderately Serious | 3,179 | 4.8 | 3,729 | 5.0 |
| Less Serious | 8,413 | 12.7 | 9,483 | 12.8 |
| Slight | 51,525 | 77.8 | 56,899 | 77.0 |
| Total | 66,236 | 100.0 | 73,920 | 100.0 |
Casualty severity by road user type
Chart 1 shows the number of serious casualties (including less, moderately and very serious) for each road user type in 2022. The chart also shows the percentage of each serious casualty type, as a proportion of the total number of serious casualties, broken down by road user type in 2022.
Within the serious category, ‘less serious’ injuries were the most common for each road user type, and ‘very serious’ injuries were least common.
Vulnerable road users (for example pedestrians, pedal cyclists) generally had a higher proportion of less serious injuries than non-vulnerable road users. In 2022, around 70% of serious pedestrian and pedal cyclist casualties were categorised as ‘less serious’, compared around half of serious car occupant casualties.
Chart 1: Number and severity breakdown of serious casualties, by road user type: 2022
Most severe injury sustained - overall
Table 2 shows the number and percentage of casualties with each injury in 2022. Note that this is only the most severe injury recorded by the police, not a full list of all injuries sustained. The absolute number of casualties for each injury generally increased in 2022 compared to 2021 and 2020. However, the proportion of injuries categorised under each injury has remained broadly stable over the last four years (figures for 2019 and 2020 are published separately)
Table 2: Number and percentage of casualties, by most severe injury recorded: 2022
| Most Severe Injury Type | Casualty Severity | Casualties in 2021 | % of all 2021 casualties | Casualties in 2022 | % of all 2022 casualties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deceased | Killed | 927 | 1.4 | 1,097 | 1.5 |
| Broken neck or back | Very Serious | 618 | 0.9 | 751 | 1.0 |
| Internal injuries | Very Serious | 634 | 1.0 | 715 | 1.0 |
| Multiple severe injuries, unconscious | Very Serious | 138 | 0.2 | 150 | 0.2 |
| Severe chest injury | Very Serious | 276 | 0.4 | 378 | 0.5 |
| Severe head injury, unconscious | Very Serious | 524 | 0.8 | 714 | 1.0 |
| Deep penetrating wound | Moderately Serious | 133 | 0.2 | 124 | 0.2 |
| Fractured pelvis or upper leg | Moderately Serious | 927 | 1.4 | 1,126 | 1.5 |
| Loss of arm or leg (or part) | Moderately Serious | 50 | 0.1 | 65 | 0.1 |
| Multiple severe injuries, conscious | Moderately Serious | 313 | 0.5 | 338 | 0.5 |
| Other chest injury, not bruising | Moderately Serious | 1,752 | 2.6 | 2,066 | 2.8 |
| Deep cuts, lacerations | Less Serious | 968 | 1.5 | 1,195 | 1.6 |
| Fractured arm, collarbone, hand | Less Serious | 2,708 | 4.1 | 2,879 | 3.9 |
| Fractured lower leg, ankle, foot | Less Serious | 2,277 | 3.4 | 2,492 | 3.4 |
| Other head injury | Less Serious | 2,450 | 3.7 | 2,902 | 3.9 |
| Bruising | Slight | 8,604 | 13.0 | 9,335 | 12.6 |
| Shallow cuts, lacerations, abrasions | Slight | 11,194 | 16.9 | 12,855 | 17.4 |
| Shock | Slight | 2,172 | 3.3 | 2,249 | 3.0 |
| Sprains and strains | Slight | 12,221 | 18.5 | 14,050 | 19.0 |
| Whiplash or neck pain | Slight | 17,306 | 26.1 | 18,368 | 24.9 |
| Other injury | Any | 12 | 0.0 | 28 | 0.0 |
| Total | All | 66,204 | 100.0 | 73,877 | 100.0 |
Most severe injury sustained by road user type
Table 3 shows the percentage of casualties assigned each most severe injury sustained, broken down by road user type, in 2022.
Compared to other road user types, van and car occupants had higher proportions of injuries categorised as whiplash or neck pain. Motorcyclists had a higher proportion of injuries categorised under all 3 types of fractures compared to other road user types. Pedal cyclists, pedestrians and motor cyclists had a higher proportion of severe head injuries and, alongside Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) occupants, a higher proportion of shallow cuts, lacerations and abrasions. These road user type differences are illustrated in Chart 2.
Table 3: Percentage of casualties assigned each most severe injury, by road user type: 2022
| Most Severe Injury Type | Casualty Severity | Pedestrian | Pedal Cyclist | Motorcyclist | Car Occupant | Van Occupant | Bus Occupant | HGV Occupant | Other Veh Occupant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deceased | Killed | 2.2 | 0.8 | 3.1 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 3.4 | 1.5 |
| Broken neck or back | Very Serious | 0.8 | 0.9 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.9 |
| Internal injuries | Very Serious | 1.0 | 0.7 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 0.9 |
| Multiple severe injuries, unconscious | Very Serious | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.4 |
| Severe chest injury | Very Serious | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 0.5 |
| Severe head injury, unconscious | Very Serious | 2.2 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 3.1 |
| Deep penetrating wound | Moderately Serious | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Fractured pelvis or upper leg | Moderately Serious | 2.5 | 1.7 | 5.3 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 2.0 | 0.8 | 2.1 |
| Loss of arm or leg (or part) | Moderately Serious | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.0 |
| Multiple severe injuries, conscious | Moderately Serious | 0.7 | 0.6 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.7 |
| Other chest injury, not bruising | Moderately Serious | 1.1 | 1.7 | 3.8 | 3.3 | 2.8 | 0.8 | 2.3 | 1.8 |
| Deep cuts, lacerations | Less Serious | 2.3 | 3.5 | 2.6 | 1.0 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 2.8 | 2.8 |
| Fractured arm, collarbone, hand | Less Serious | 4.6 | 8.1 | 9.5 | 2.4 | 2.5 | 1.4 | 3.1 | 5.4 |
| Fractured lower leg, ankle, foot | Less Serious | 9.5 | 3.6 | 11.1 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 1.8 | 4.7 |
| Other head injury | Less Serious | 5.6 | 4.7 | 2.2 | 3.5 | 3.7 | 6.6 | 2.8 | 7.7 |
| Bruising | Slight | 20.2 | 13.5 | 10.9 | 10.9 | 10.4 | 23.7 | 9.6 | 13.4 |
| Shallow cuts, lacerations, abrasions | Slight | 23.1 | 34.6 | 18.4 | 13.2 | 15.6 | 19.0 | 26.1 | 24.5 |
| Shock | Slight | 2.0 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 4.0 | 2.6 | 3.5 | 6.2 | 2.5 |
| Sprains and strains | Slight | 17.7 | 16.1 | 17.6 | 19.9 | 20.9 | 21.9 | 17.8 | 17.0 |
| Whiplash or neck pain | Slight | 3.6 | 6.1 | 6.1 | 35.6 | 33.6 | 17.3 | 18.6 | 9.4 |
| Other injury | Any | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
| Total | All | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 |
Chart 2: Road user type differences in the percentage of casualties assigned certain most severe injuries: 2022
Caveats
The Metropolitan police used an injury-based system to report road casualties over this period. However, casualty data from the Metropolitan police is currently inconsistently populated within the STATS19 database. Metropolitan police data has therefore been removed from this analysis. The exception to this is the small number of casualties that occurred in Metropolitan police areas, but were reported by neighbouring police forces using CRaSH. This casualty data was retained for table 1 and chart 1. Additionally, a small number of casualties across several police forces were removed from this analysis, due to inconsistent casualty severity and most severe injury type data. Solutions to these data issues are being investigated by the department.
Feedback
We welcome further feedback on any aspects of the department’s road safety statistics including content, timing, and format, via the contact details below. Data on the more detailed breakdown of injuries is not currently included in the annual road casualty statistics, but further breakdowns can be requested via the details below. Applications for researchers wishing to use the detailed record level data will also be considered, though must meet the department’s conditions for holding and processing sensitive data.
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