Men are majority of crash fatalities

MORE than 85 per cent of motorists killed in crashes in the county are men.

Official police data shows a total of 192 car drivers were fatally or badly hurt on Leicestershire’s roads in 2016 and 2017 - the latest years for which detailed information is available.

Some 120 of the 192 drivers were male, while 72 were female. Of the 21 drivers who were killed, 18 were men.

The data shows young male drivers are particularly over-represented in the casualty statistics.

More than two-thirds of the 120 male drivers hurt or killed were aged under 40, with nearly one-third (37 in all) aged between 20 and 29.

The data comes from the Stats19 database - a comprehensive record of the circumstances of single accidents in which someone was hurt or killed on the roads, published by the Department for Transport.

Road safety campaigners called the figures “deeply concerning” and said a toxic mixture of inexperience and over-confidence among young male drivers was to blame.

Across the UK as a whole, 13,573 drivers and 6,433 passengers were killed or seriously injured in 2016 and 2017.

Some 65 per cent of the drivers were men - but only 45 per cent of the passengers.

Men were even more likely to be the drivers when only fatal incidents were counted.

A total of 1,151 drivers were killed in 2016 and 2017 - and 886 of them, or 77 per cent, were male.

More than a third of all drivers killed - 495 in all - were men aged between 20 and 40.

Jack Kushner, spokesperson for Brake, the road safety charity, said: “These figures are deeply concerning and highlight the importance of targeted action to improve male driving behaviours.”