FOI reference: FOI-2024-2382
You asked
Under the Freedom of Information Act can you forward onto me the statistics on:
Deaths on the roads since roads were changed to 20mph to date. (14 month period) Against the same length of time when the roads were 30mph.
Accidents on the roads since roads changed to 20mph to date. (14 month period) Against the same length of time when the roads were 30mph.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for the production of mortality statistics for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration.
Causes of death are certified in most cases by a doctor, who records the sequence of medical conditions and relevant events leading to, or contributing to, the death, based on the deceased's healthcare records and other available information, such as laboratory tests or post-mortem investigation.
Some deaths are certified by a coroner who determines the causes of death following an inquest, based on all the available evidence. It is unusual for wider contextual factors such as the speed limit of a road to be recorded on the death certificate, therefore we do not hold the requested information.
However, the following data may be useful for you:
Deaths due to road traffic accidents are routinely referred to a coroner for investigation therefore are subject to registration delays. The median registration delay for road traffic accidents registered in 2021 was 321 days. Our publication on the Impact of Registrations Delays provides further information.
The accompanying dataset shows the number of deaths due to land transport accidents occurring in England and Wales, for each month between January 2022 and December 2023. Due to the delay in registrations, we are still in the data collection phases for 2024. Because of this, analysis has not yet started, and we do not hold a figure for that reporting period.
We do not hold information on the number of accidents or serious injuries. However, the Department for Transport and Welsh Government release these figures, so may be better placed to assist.
Please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk for any queries regarding the data provided.