Statistics on road injuries during pandemic

SERIOUS injuries among adults on Halton’s roads fell during the first pandemic year but doubled in children, new figures have revealed.

A report to the council’s Environment and Urban Renewal Policy and Performance Board revealed road collisions resulting in injuries fell to a historic low of 159 in 2020, which was 24 fewer than the year before.

There were 21 people seriously injured and one death, lower than 2019 (with 28 serious injuries and three deaths) and continued what the council said is a ‘longterm downward trend’.

But there were four children seriously injured, an increase of 100 per cent on the previous year.

According to the figures - the most recent available - there were eight collisions on Mersey Gatewaycontrolled roads in 2020, resulting in eight casualties, a significant decrease on 2019’s figures of 23 collisions and 28 casualties.

The report said: “This is probably the starkest indication as to how much traffic levels reduced, particularly at peak hours, during the initial Covid-19 lockdowns.”

It added: “Of those killed or seriously injured, the number of adults decreased by 11 but the numbers of child casualties increased by two.

“However due to the low numbers recorded annually in Halton, this number does fluctuate from year to year.”

The report said that a five year rolling average for casualty numbers continued to show a decline for adults but an increase for children.

It concluded: “Given that the country was in lockdown for large parts of 2020, the number of road traffic collisions was always going to fall, as traffic on our roads fell to levels not seen for many decades.

“However, when judging Halton’s 2020 road traffic collision record in comparison with neighbouring Authorities in Cheshire or the Liverpool City Region, our reduction in casualty numbers compare very favourably.”