The toll of individuals being killed at school run crashes has reached all time excessive | UK | News | EUROtoday

The loss of life toll from faculty run crashes has reached a 15-year excessive.

Latest obtainable information from the Department of Transport confirmed there have been 11 fatalities, 259 individuals significantly injured in crashes and one other 1,721 who escaped a smash with lesser accidents in 2023.

The figures equate to round 10 individuals each faculty day and this was greater than double the quantity for any of the earlier six years. It was solely exceeded by the 12 deaths in 2008.

The quantity injured and killed dropped considerably throughout the pandemic when faculties had been both closed or pupil numbers restricted. But there was a pointy rise since restrictions had been lifted.

In 2020 when Covid struck there have been 5 individuals killed in school-run crashes, 175 significantly injured and 1,302 barely damage.

In the three years since, the variety of fatalities has greater than doubled, critical accidents have elevated nearly 50% and slight accidents by 32%.

The figures confirmed the overwhelming majority of those accidents befell in and across the rush-hour instances for faculties at 8am to 9am, or 3pm to 4pm.

Jack Cousens, head of roads coverage for the AA, mentioned: “Keeping children and parents safe on the school run is important, no matter how they travel.

“Improving the safety of walking routes by retaining lollipop crossing patrols, implementing school streets and introducing traffic calming measures outside the school gates could help reduce crashes and casualties.”

James Ruppert, editor of Free Car Mag.com, mentioned: “Rush hour is always a dangerous time to travel for all road users. If we take children out of cars then put them in buses or encourage walking to local schools then perhaps two issues could be solved, congestion and the potential for accidents.

“At the heart of the problem can also be parents with a mix of primary and secondary school children simply having to deal with the complicated logistics of getting them to where they need to be on time.”