Road traffic collisions and safety (health and wellbeing needs in South Tyneside)

Level of need

The UK has one of the best road safety records in the world, but more can be done to prevent deaths and serious injuries. The number of people killed in road traffic collisions in the UK reported to the police has decreased by 2 per cent from 1,775 in 2014 to 1,732 in 2015 (Tyne and Wear Traffic and Accident Report, 2015). The total number of reported casualties (slight injuries, serious injuries and fatalities) in collisions in the UK in 2015 also decreased by 4% as shown in Table 1.

See Table 1 Road Traffic Appendix

The Tyne and Wear Traffic and Accident Data Unit (TADU) produces a detailed picture of road traffic collisions in the North East, where possible using data over the previous five years. TADU also plays a key role by supplying data to support the delivery of transport solutions, planning, health and economic development across Tyne and Wear.

TADU is funded by the five Tyne and Wear local authorities and manages two key data sets:

  • Road traffic accident data for the Northumbria Police Force area
  • Traffic flow data in Tyne and Wear for those locations monitored for the Northumbria Safer Roads Initiative (NSRI)

The North Regional Road Safety Resource is a sister facility of TADU and provides high quality, detailed analysis or road safety, collision and casualty statistics to support education, training and publicity activities with a region wide focus in a co-ordinated way. It provides a single focus for the analysis of road safety information at a regional level and promotes best practice and continued improvement across the North East.

The Road Safety Resource produces reports on both regional and local concerns as well as issues such as the impact of deprivation on road safety, pedal cycle casualties along with benchmarking performance of the twelve regional local authorities against others across the country. North East Regional Road Safety. This information informs South Tyneside road traffic and accident position.

See Table 2 Road Traffic Appendix