Reported road casualties in Great Britain, provisional estimates involving illegal alcohol levels: 2020
Provisional estimates on personal injury drink drive accidents in Great Britain for 2020.
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Provisional estimates of casualties in accidents involving at least one driver or rider over the drink-drive limit in Great Britain for 2020 are that between 190 and 250 people were killed in drink-drive accidents, with a central estimate of 220 fatalities.
The provisional estimate of fatalities for 2020 is broadly in line with the last few years and is not statistically significantly different from 2019.
The central estimate of the number of killed or seriously injured drink-drive casualties in 2020 is 1,500, a decrease of 22% on 2019. In total, an estimated 6,480 people were killed or injured in drink-drive accidents, a fall of 17% from 2019. These reductions are broadly in line with reductions in reported road accidents during 2020, a period affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
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Alongside this publication, we have published details of proposed changes to the department’s drink-drive statistics. We welcome any feedback from users which can be provided by completing our short survey or using the contact details below.
Background information
Background information on how drink-drive estimates are calculated can be found in the methodology note.
Since 2016, changes in severity reporting systems for a large number of police forces mean that serious injury figures, and to a lesser extent slight injuries, are not comparable with earlier years. Adjustments to account for the change have been included in this publication. More information on the change and the adjustment process is available in the guide to severity adjustments.
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