Pedestrian protection

After a fall in pedestrian fatalities between 2014 and 2015, in 2016, the number of pedestrians killed in road accidents in Great Britain rose to 448, accounting for 25% of road deaths¹.

Our factsheet outlines what measures can, and are, being taken to improve the design of cars so that drivers are less likely to hit pedestrians in the first place, known as active safety technologies, and measures so that when such collisions do happen, the pedestrian will suffer less severe injuries, known as passive safety technologies.

Table 1 below shows the number of pedestrian injuries in 2016. There were 15,976 child casualties of which 38% were pedestrians and 23,409 casualties involving people aged over 60, of which 18% were pedestrians.

Table 1: Police reported pedestrian injuries by severity, 2016, Great Britain²

_{*Includes cases where age was not reported}

References

1. Department for Transport (2017) Reported road casualties in Great Britain: 2016 Annual Report
2. Department for Transport (2017) Table RAS30002: Reported casualties by road user type, age and severity, Great Britain, 2016