Deaths related to e-scooters on UK roads have risen tenfold in the last year, prompting calls for the Government to take serious action.

The DfT’s data reveals there were 1,434 casualties involving e-scooters in 2021, including 10 fatalities

The Department for Transport’s (DfT) newly published Reported Road casualties Great Britain, annual report: 2021 data reveals there were 1,434 casualties involving e-scooters, of which 10 people were killed, 421 were seriously injured and 1,003 were slightly injured.

This is in stark contrast to the DfT’s 2020 statistics, which recorded 484 casualties involving e-scooters, including one death, 128 serious injuries and 355 slight injuries. Shockingly, this means there has been a 900% increase in deaths in just 12 months.

Neil Greig, director of policy and research at IAM RoadSmart, commented: “The e-scooter carnage must stop. A tenfold increase in deaths related to e-scooters in just one year is utterly unacceptable and the continued delay in regulating these machines is costing lives and causing misery on our city roads every day.

“IAM RoadSmart calls on the new Transport Secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, to make road safety the number one deliverable for her department in the coming months by introducing the long-awaited Transport Bill to regulate e-scooters for the first time.”

The DfT report also revealed that although there was an 11% decrease in casualties in 2021 compared to 2019, overall road casualties have returned to the stagnation trend of the past decade after a sharp decrease in casualties in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Greig added: “The latest crash statistics make for depressing reading and the DfT now needs to show leadership in road safety and publish its long-awaited strategy for England and the Road Policing Review. Once we have a clear government vision for road safety, we can all start working together to deliver it and keep Britain’s roads as safe as they can possibly be.”

Brake has also responded to the publication of the new road casualty statistics, highlighting that people cycling, walking and on motorbikes continued to be most likely to die on roads in 2021.

The DfT data shows that people cycling and walking had a death rate in 2021 nearly nine times higher than car occupants. People on motorbikes had a death rate almost 40 times higher than car occupants.

The government report also shows that a quarter of car occupant fatalities in recent years were not wearing seatbelts, demonstrating the vital importance of belting up.

Mary Williams, chief executive at the road safety charity, said: “The carnage on roads, that takes lives indiscriminately, devastates families, and causes appalling injuries, must end. No death or serious injury on roads is acceptable.

“The total estimate of the value of preventing these horrifying and devastating collisions in 2021 was around £30bn, including huge costs to our NHS and emergency services. To save money as well as lives, and in line with the recommendations of the Safe Roads for All Alliance, we urge this new Government to put road safety at the heart of its infrastructure plans, set targets for reducing the carnage, urgently implement policies and funding for safe vehicle use and road safety infrastructure in our towns and between places, and help provide devastated families with the support they need.”

And the AA has spoken out on the need for a renewed focus on the importance of wearing seatbelts.

The DfT report reveals that not wearing a seatbelt contributed to 30% of deaths in cars for the first time. At night, that rose to 47%.

Most likely to be killed while not wearing seatbelt were younger car occupants aged 17 to 29 years at 40%.

“This is a dreadful jump in road deaths where wearing a seat belt may well have been the difference between surviving or dying in a road crash,” said Jack Cousens, the AA’s head of roads policy.

“Release from pandemic lockdowns may have fuelled some of the surge, but the rate of death while not wearing a seatbelt was surging even before covid. There may need to be a road safety campaign to raise the danger once again. Clearly, the message is being forgotten.”

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has also more action is needed.

Rebecca Guy, road safety manager, England, said: “Currently, drivers face a £500 fine for not wearing a seatbelt, but perhaps this monetary penalty isn’t enough of a deterrent to stop road users from taking risks that put themselves, and others, in danger of harm or worse.

“We are urging all road users who have a lax attitude to seatbelt use to consider the peril they might inflict by completing the simple precautionary routine of buckling up before they start their engines and use their vehicle. It is vital that all vehicle occupants wear their seatbelt for all journeys, regardless of the length of the trip or road conditions.”