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Police: Accidents

Answer

The available data are for 2002-03 onwards and relate to road traffic collisions on public roads during immediate/emergency responses and police pursuit, and are given in the following tables.In responding effectively to emergency situations the police must have due regard to the safety of other road users. The IPCC Report on their two-year review of road traffic incidents involving police vehicles which resulted in a fatality or serious injury was recently published (““Police Road Traffic Incidents: A Study of Cases Involving Serious and Fatal Injuries”” http://www.ipcc.gov.uk/rti_report_11_9_07.pdf).There are 29 recommendations for police forces in the report about how practice could and should be changed.

Number¹ and type² of injuries resulting from those road traffic accidents occurring during immediate/emergency response³ and police pursuit4, from 2002-03 to 2006-07
	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
	Fatal injury	Serious injury	Other injury	Fatal injury	Serious injury	Other injury	Fatal injury	Serious injury	Other injury
Avon and Somerset	2	7	53	2	6	74	0	9	52
Bedfordshire	0	2	16	1	1	56	1	1	27
Cambridgeshire	0	6	6	0	4	12	0	0	26
Cheshire	0	2	27	0	1	17	0	7	29
Cleveland	0	0	18	1	0	3	0	0	0
Cumbria	0	0	8	0	0	5	0	0	6
Derbyshire	0	0	38	0	1	25	1	0	35
Devon and Cornwall	0	1	26	1	1	64	0	0	18
Dorset	0	1	10	1	2	9	5—	5—	5—
Durham	5—	5—	5—	2	1	36	0	1	26
Dyfed-Powys	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Essex	0	2	32	2	3	36	1	3	35
Gloucestershire	0	0	24	0	0	4	0	0	12
Greater Manchester	4	5	74	6	9	56	4	2	106
Gwent	0	0	12	0	0	24	0	0	5
Hampshire	1	7	29	0	3	7	0	0	7
Hertfordshire	0	6	59	0	2	16	0	5	61
Humberside	0	3	19	0	1	25	0	0	18
Kent	0	2	48	0	7	73	0	2	23
Lancashire	0	1	31	0	2	30	1	0	19
Leicestershire	1	2	15	0	2	16	5—	5—	5—
Lincolnshire	0	2	10	0	5	18	2	2	12
London, City of	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	1
Merseyside	3	3	62	3	6	75	0	3	58
Metropolitan police	5	14	5—	4	21	600	4	23	724
Norfolk	1	1	17	1	1	28	0	6	26
Northamptonshire	0	1	14	1	6	19	0	4	22
Northumbria	0	3	62	0	3	70	3	13	94
North Wales	0	0	18	0	1	5	0	0	3
North Yorkshire	5—	5—	5—	0	0	0	0	2	7
Nottinghamshire	2	5	8	1	8	57	1	0	4
South Wales	0	0	20	0	0	9	0	0	0
South Yorkshire	0	3	24	0	12	67	2	10	83
Staffordshire	0	0	26	0	1	29	0	0	1
Suffolk	0	1	6	0	3	11	0	2	8
Surrey	0	2	38	1	2	33	0	1	31
Sussex	0	7	45	0	6	27	2	0	31
Thames Valley	3	13	115	2	11	122	0	6	71
Warwickshire	0	0	5	0	1	10	2	0	8
West Mercia	0	4	30	0	2	22	0	4	32
West Midlands	5—	5—	5—	2	2	44	0	0	44
West Yorkshire	0	0	15	0	0	7	0	2	5
Wiltshire	0	0	8	0	0	4	0	0	11

	2005-06	2006-07
	Fatal injury	Serious injury	Other injury	Fatal injury	Serious injury	Other injury
Avon and Somerset	2	3	68	0	8	42
Bedfordshire	0	0	17	1	2	11
Cambridgeshire	0	0	10	0	0	0
Cheshire	0	5	30	0	2	18
Cleveland	0	0	0	0	1	8
Cumbria	2	0	3	0	0	3
Derbyshire	0	0	6	0	0	16
Devon and Cornwall	0	0	15	0	1	20
Dorset	1	1	17	0	1	7
Durham	0	2	13	0	1	21
Dyfed-Powys	0	0	0	0	0	0
Essex	1	4	17	0	0	22
Gloucestershire	0	0	6	5—	5—	5—
Greater Manchester	1	3	91	6	6	64
Gwent	0	1	13	0	0	7
Hampshire	1	7	10	1	5	4
Hertfordshire	2	3	45	0	11	48
Humberside	0	0	12	1	0	19
Kent	1	1	18	0	0	12
Lancashire	0	0	28	0	2	32
Leicestershire	0	1	10	0	1	15
Lincolnshire	0	1	13	0	0	6
London, City of	0	1	6	0	0	0
Merseyside	3	3	136	1	4	88
Metropolitan police	4	33	584	4	26	496
Norfolk	0	0	10	0	0	10
Northamptonshire	0	1	18	1	7	13
Northumbria	1	5	84	1	5	64
North Wales	0	0	1	0	0	24
North Yorkshire	0	2	10	0	11	16
Nottinghamshire	5—	5—	5—	5—	5—	5—
South Wales	0	0	3	0	0	1
South Yorkshire	0	2	11	0	33	35
Staffordshire	1	0	5	0	0	17
Suffolk	1	1	4	0	0	16
Surrey	0	1	31	0	2	24
Sussex	5	0	23	0	0	43
Thames Valley	0	2	127	3	6	56
Warwickshire	0	0	8	0	0	8
West Mercia	0	2	26	0	1	23
West Midlands	0	0	31	0	0	12
West Yorkshire	0	0	24	0	0	52
Wiltshire	0	0	4	0	0	4
¹ Headcount figures. Includes both police personnel and members of the public. ² Fatal and serious injuries are as defined in the Department of Transport Stats 20 instructions for the completion of road accident reports. ³ An immediate/emergency response is when a police vehicle is en route to a reported incident. 4 A police pursuit is where a police vehicle driver is pursuing a fleeing vehicle with the intention of causing it to stop. 5 Data are not available.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

170423; 469 c976-8W

Session

2007-08

Subjects

Accidents Roads Police pursuits

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk