22 - Motor vehicle accidents

Summary

This category includes the majority of deaths resulting from traffic accidents. They are traffic accidents where the person who has died was a driver or passenger in a vehicle (for example, car, lorry, bus, motorcycle), and not a pedestrian or pedal cyclist.

See also Map 25 Pedal cyclist hit by vehicle and Map 41 Pedestrian hit by vehicle.

Deaths from this cause are among the most common way that people in Britain between the ages of 15 and 34 have recently died. Below those ages they more often die while trying to cross the road as a pedestrian, or being hit by a car while cycling.

The lowest rates are generally found in the more urban areas, with London, Newcastle, Greater Manchester and Cardiff having particularly low rates.

In comparison, higher rates are more often found in rural areas, where car use is more necessary, pavements and lighting are often poorer or missing, and average speeds are higher. The highest death rates from this cause are found in the north of Scotland.

Three quarters of the victims of this cause of death are males, most of them in their teens, twenties and thirties. However, people of all ages, young and old, die from this cause.